KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 15): After massive hirings in the technology sector following a banner year in 2021, firings in the US tech sector have climbed to more than 67,000 workers as of November 2022, according to a Crunchbase News tally.
In a report on Tuesday (Nov 15), the firm said tech companies as big as Netflix have slashed jobs this year, with some citing the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, and others pointing to overhiring during periods of rapid growth.
Also, it said Robinhood, Glossier and Better are just a few of the tech companies that have notably trimmed their headcount in 2022.
Crunchbase, which tracks trends, investments and news of global companies from start-ups to the Fortune 1000, said the public markets have been hit hard in 2022, and that’s trickled down to the private markets.
It said inflation concerns, rising interest rates, and geopolitical issues have all contributed to a roller-coaster stock market.
The firm said start-ups — especially those that benefited from a pandemic boom that’s starting to cool — are feeling the pressure too.
Valuations, particularly at the late stage, have started to dip, and start-ups say it’s much more difficult to raise new funding in this environment, it said.
Methodology
The firm has included both start-ups and publicly traded companies that are based in the US.
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.
The lay-offs are sourced from media reports, social media posts and layoffs.fyi, a crowdsourced database of tech lay-offs.