Capital One Cutting 1,100 Employees As 2023 Layoffs Continue

Topline

Banking giant Capital One has laid off roughly 1,100 employees, Bloomberg reported on Thursday, just days after software giant Microsoft announced plans to cut 10,000 employees and Amazon began laying off 18,000—as fears of a looming recession continue into the new year.

Timeline

January 19Capital One slashed 1,100 technology positions, a source familiar with the matter told Bloomberg—Capital One did not confirm the number of positions that would be cut, although a spokesperson told Forbes that affected employees were told they could apply for other roles in the company.

January 19Student loan servicer Nelnet announced it will let go of 350 associates hired over past next six months, while another 210 will be cut for “performance reasons,” telling Insider the cuts come as President Joe Biden’s student debt forgiveness program continues to stall after facing legal challenges from conservative groups opposed to the measure.

January 18Microsoft’s cuts, which affect 10,000 employees (less than 5% of its workforce), come three months after the Washington-based company conducted another round of layoffs affecting less than 1% of its roughly 180,000 employees, with CEO Satya Nadella saying in a message to employees that some workers will be notified starting Wednesday, and the layoffs will be conducted by the end of the third fiscal quarter in September.

January 18Amazon, one of the biggest companies in the country, had outlined a plan to eliminate more than 18,000 positions (including jobs that were cut in November) starting January 18 in a message to staff earlier this month from CEO Andy Jassy, who said the company is facing an “uncertain economy” after hiring “rapidly” over the past few years.

January 18Teladoc Health will cut 6% of its staff—not including clinicians—as part of a restructuring plan the company announced in a financial report on Wednesday, as the New York-based telemedicine company attempts to reduce its operating costs amid a “challenged economic environment.”

January 13LendingClub announced it would lay off 225 employees (roughly 14% of its workforce) in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, amid a “challenging economic environment,” as the San Francisco-based company attempts to “align its operations to reduced marketplace revenue” following seven rounds of Federal Reserve interest rate hikes last year and as concerns persist of a potential recession.

January 13Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek announced the company, which had more than 2,500 employees as of October, according to PitchBook, will cut 20% of its staff in a message to employees, as the company faces “ongoing economic headwinds and unforeseeable industry events—including the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency exchange FTX late last year, which “significantly damaged trust in the industry.”

January 12DirecTV’s cuts could affect hundreds of employees, primarily managers, who make up nearly half of the company’s 10,000 employees, sources told CNBC, as the company struggles with an increase in the cost to “secure and distribute programming,” and after the company lost nearly 3% of its subscribers (400,000) in the third quarter of 2022, according to the Leichtman Research Group.

January 11BlackRock officials reportedly told employees the New York-based company plans to reduce its headcount by 2.5%—the company did not immediately respond to a Forbes inquiry for further details, but in an internal memo obtained by Bloomberg, CEO Larry Fink and President Rob Kapito said the move comes amid “uncertainty around us” that necessitates staying “ahead of changes in the market.”

January 11In a memo to employees, Flexport CEOs Dave Clark and Ryan Petersen announced plans to slash 20% of the company’s global workforce (estimated to affect 662 of its more than 3,300 employees, according to data from PitchBook), saying the supply chain startup is “not immune” to a worldwide the “macroeconomic downturn.”

January 10Coinbase, one of the biggest crypto exchanges in the U.S. announced plans to lay off 25% of its workforce (950 employees) in a company blog post in order to “weather downturns in the crypto market,” after it laid off another 18% of its staff last June.

January 9Goldman Sachs could lay off as many as 3,200 employees in one of the biggest round of job cuts so far in 2023 as the investment banking giant prepares for a possible recession, multiple outlets reported, citing people familiar with the job cuts.

January 9Artificial intelligence startup Scale AI announced plans to cut one fifth of its staff, CEO Alexandr Wang announced in a blog post, saying the company grew “rapidly” over the past several years, but faces a macro environment that has “changed dramatically in recent quarters.”

January 5Online apparel company Stitch Fix will lay off 20% of its salaried staff and close a Salt Lake City distribution center, founder and interim CEO Katrina Lake announced in an internal memo, after laying off another 15% of its staff last June.

January 5Crypto lender Genesis Trading reportedly laid off 30% of its workforce, according to the Wall Street Journal, which spoke to unnamed sources—the company’s second round of cuts since August, lowering its staff to 145.

January 4San Francisco-based software giant Salesforce will reduce its headcount by 10%, or 7,900 employees, CEO Marc Benioff announced in an internal letter, amid a “challenging” economic climate and as customers take a “more measured approach to their purchasing decisions.”

January 4Online video platform Vimeo announced its second round of cuts in the past six months, which affect 11% of its workforce (roughly 150 of its 1,400 employees, according to data from PitchBook), with CEO Anjali Sud attributing the company’s decision to a “deterioration in economic conditions.”

Key Background

More than 120 large U.S. companies—including tech startups, major banks, manufacturers and online platforms—conducted major rounds of layoffs last year, cutting nearly 125,000 employees, according to Forbes’ layoff tracker. The biggest came from Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta, which laid off roughly 11,000 employees in November. The company with the most rounds of cuts was Peloton, which underwent four separate rounds of layoffs, including one that affected more than 2,800 workers.

What To Watch For

More layoffs at several large U.S. companies, including Google parent company Alphabet, which reportedly initiated a program last November for department leaders to identify poor-performing employees that could be laid off, which could target as many as 10,000 employees. Twitter, meanwhile, reportedly cut more than a dozen foreign employees last week, including members of its team in charge of misinformation policy, its latest round of cuts after CEO Elon Musk took over in October. Initial reports had indicated Musk could be laying off as many as 75% of the social media platform’s 7,500 employees, although he denied that report, saying the number was inaccurate. The company started laying off employees in November, which reportedly affected 50% of its staff.

Further Reading

125,000 Laid Off In Major Cuts As Recession Fears Spiked, According To Forbes Tracker (Forbes)

Goldman Sachs Will Reportedly Cut More Than 3,000 Jobs—As Major Layoffs Continue Into 2023 (Forbes)

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

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2023/01/19/capital-one-reportedly-cutting-1100-employees-as-2023-layoffs-continue/