KUALA LUMPUR (June 14): More than 19,000 workers in the US tech sector have been laid off in mass job cuts so far in 2022, according to a Crunchbase News tally.

In a report on Monday (June 13), Crunchbase — which tracks trends, investments and news of global companies from start-ups to the Fortune 1000 —  said tech companies as big as Netflix already slashed jobs this year, with some citing effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and others pointing to overhiring during periods of rapid growth.

According to Crunchbase, Robinhood, Glossier and Better are just a few of the tech companies that have notably trimmed their headcount in 2022.

Public markets have been hit hard in 2022, and that has trickled down to private markets, according to Crunchbase. Inflation concerns, rising interest rates and geopolitical issues have all contributed to a roller-coaster stock market.

It said start-ups — especially the ones which benefited from a Covid-19 pandemic boom that’s starting to cool — are starting to feel the pressure too.

It said valuations, particularly at the late stage, had started to dip, and start-ups say it’s much more difficult to raise new funding in the current environment.

Crunchbase said it had included both start-ups and publicly traded companies that are based in the US in its tally.

It also included companies based elsewhere with a sizeable team in the US, such as Klarna, even when it’s unclear how much of the US workforce has been affected by lay-offs.