46,000 Laid Off In November Alone As Job Cuts Grow

Topline

More than 46,000 people lost their jobs in two dozen large corporate layoffs in November—including nearly 4,000 just on Wednesday—according to Forbes layoff tracker, as employers fear recession could be around the corner.

Meta was one of more than two dozen large companies to conduct layoffs in November.

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Key Facts

Crypto exchange giant Kraken announced plans on Wednesday to lay off 1,100 employees, nearly 30% of the company’s workforce, as founder and CEO Jesse Powell blamed “macroeconomic and geopolitical factors” that have “weighed on financial markets.”

Kraken is just the latest major U.S. company to implement massive reductions this month, following HP Inc’s announcement last week to cut between 4,000 and 6,000 employees by the end of 2025, as well as cuts at AMC Networks, Nuro, Roku, Cisco and Amazon.

Earlier on Wednesday, Swedish clothing retailer H&M unveiled plans to cut 1,500 employees (roughly 1% of the company’s 155,000 employees) as part of a cost-cutting effort aimed at saving $190 million annually.

DoorDash also announced plans on Wednesday to cut 1,250 workers, with CEO Tony Xu saying in a letter to employees the company isn’t “immune to the external challenges” and that its growth has “tapered” since its “unprecedented” expansion at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.

CNN CEO Chris Licht confirmed a round of layoffs Wednesday at the news outlet that are expected to affect hundreds of employees, one month after he warned employees of upcoming “unsettling” changes—CNN did not state the specific number of people affected by the cuts, although Licht said it would largely impact paid on-air contributors to the network.

Tangent

Kraken is not the first crypto company to reduce its headcount this year. Earlier this month, Digital Currency Group laid off 13% of its staff. In June, crypto exchange Crypto.com announced plans to lay off 260 employees, although The Verge reported the number was much higher, speaking to unnamed sources. According to CoinGeek, the number of laid off employees at Crypto.com could be as high as 2,000. Cryptocurrencies, meanwhile, have taken a significant fall over the past year, with Bitcoin dropping to $16,761, from $57,248 at this time last year, and Ethereum falling to $1,263 from $4,599 12 months ago.

Surprising Fact

DoorDash and Kraken became the latest companies headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area to implement massive cuts, following HP, Nuro, Asana, Twitter, Meta, Lyft, Stripe, Salesforce, Chime, Opendoor.

Big Number

11,000. That’s how many Meta employees were laid off earlier this month—the biggest reduction this fall, followed by a round of cuts at Amazon, which could reportedly affect as many as 10,000 employees. Cisco, which announced layoffs two weeks ago, is cutting 4,100 employees (5% of its staff), while Twitter CEO Elon Musk is reportedly planning to cut 3,750 employees (50%).

Key Background

Nearly 100 large companies running the gamut from retail to banks and crypto exchanges, have conducted massive rounds of job cuts since May, as employers feared rising inflation and four rounds of Federal Reserve interest rate hikes could bring the economy into recession (Forbes has been tracking the biggest corporate layoffs this year). Economists, meanwhile, are predicting a recession could come as early as next year, with JPMorgan forecasting a “mild recession” in 2023, even though inflation has slowed in recent months.

News Peg

Speaking at the Brookings Institution on Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the Fed will most likely slow its pace of interest rate hikes next month, adding that “despite some promising developments, we have a long way to go in restoring price stability.” It comes a week after the Fed indicated it will likely ease up on its aggressive interest rate hikes, which were intended to ease demand and slow inflation, which hit a 40-year high in July.