Credit Suisse and SoftBank are reportedly cutting back on staff, the companies announced on Friday—becoming the latest multinational firms to announce layoffs this summer as employers fear an unstable market could lead to recession.
SoftBank, the Tokyo-based investment management giant, reportedly announced plans to cut up to 20% of its Vision Fund venture capital staff (estimated to be 100 employees), three weeks after the fund posted a record $23.1 billion loss in the fiscal quarter ending in June (SoftBank did not immediately respond to an inquiry from Forbes).
Investment banking giant Credit Suisse could reportedly cut as many as 5,000 jobs as the scandal-hit bank seeks to turnaround its reputation and reduce costs, according to Reuters (Forbes has contacted the bank for comment).
Wells Fargo reportedly cut 75 employees in its home mortgage division, bringing the total number of layoffs in the division since April to 366 as demand for new homes dwindles in the wake of rising inflation and the Federal Reserve’s recent rounds of interest rate hikes.
Bed Bath & Beyond unveiled plans to lay off 20% of its workforce and take out $500 million in new financing, as the struggling retail giant closes 150 “lower-producing” stores amid continuing issues with low sales.
VF Corporation, the parent company of brands such as Vans, Timeberland and the North Face, reportedly cut 300 employees and eliminated 300 open positions (less than 1% of its global workforce), with CEO Steve Rendle writing in an internal letter to employees obtained by the Denver Business Journal that the cuts come amid an environment that will “likely continue to be marked by volatility” (VF confirmed the layoffs to Forbes but would not provide further details).
Snap CEO Evan Spiegel announced in a company memo that the company will lay off 20% of its than 6,400 workers (1,280 employees), the Verge reported, saying the company is facing a “lower rate of revenue growth”—the company’s stock price has plummeted nearly 80% since earlier this year.
Online mortgage lender Better.com reportedly announced its third round of layoffs this year and its fourth in the past 12 months, laying off close to 250 employees, an unnamed worker told TechCrunch—bringing the company’s total layoffs since December to roughly 4,000 as the company struggles amid a precipitous downturn in the housing market (Better.com did not immediately respond to an inquiry from Forbes).
Artificial intelligence startup DataRobot interim CEO Debanjan Saha announced the Boston-based company’s second round of job cuts since May in a move “to adapt to changing market dynamics,” and even though the company did not specify the number of employees leaving, LinkedIn reported it will affect 26% of its staff, which, according to the site TechTarget, would mean roughly 260 of its 1,000 employees.
Tennessee-based trucking company U.S. Xpress cut 5% of its corporate workforce, a spokesperson confirmed to local ABC affiliate WTVC, bringing its total layoffs this summer to roughly 140, following a round of cuts in May that slashed another 5% of the company’s corporate staff, reported at the time to be around 70 employees.
Ford announced it will let go about 3,000 office and contract employees as the carmaker moves to cut spending as it transitions to producing electric vehicles, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Boston-based online furniture retailer Wayfair slashed 870 jobs (nearly 5% of the company’s 18,000 employees), according to an internal memo from CEO Niraj Shah obtained by the Boston Globe, which stated the company was rebuilding after the Covid-19 pandemic but that their “team is too large for the environment we are now in.”
Software company New Relic laid off 110 employees, including 90 in the U.S. (roughly 5% of its workforce), CEO Bill Staples posted in a statement on the company’s website, writing the cuts are essential in light of “current information on growth trends and market expectations.”
Philadelphia-based Audacy, the second biggest radio company in the United States, cut 5% of its workforce (estimated to be roughly 250 employees), Inside Radio reported, with CEO David Field saying the cuts come “in light of current macroeconomic headwinds.”
Apple, the world’s most valuable company, laid off 100 contracted recruiters amid a hiring slowdown, Bloomberg reported (Apple did not respond immediately to an inquiry from Forbes).
HBO Max cut 70 jobs (14% of its workforce) in a cost-cutting effort that comes four months after Discovery’s $43 billion acquisition of HBO Max parent company WarnerMedia, and a week after the company announced plans to combine the streaming service with Discovery+ as soon as next year, Deadline reported.
Peloton, which gained popularity as gyms shut their doors during the pandemic, announced a sweeping round of layoffs in a memo to employees obtained by Bloomberg, six months after the New York-based company cut 2,800 jobs.
Texas-based home health services company Signify Health laid off 489 employees, a cost-cutting move that comes weeks after health care giant CVS made a bid to purchase the company, multiple outlets reported.
Meditation app Calm CEO David Ko announced plans to lay off 90 employees (20% of the company’s workforce) in a memo to employees, saying, “we as a company are not immune to the impacts of the current economic environment.“
California tech startup Nutanix announced plans to cut 270 (4% of its workforce) by the end of October, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, in an effort to reduce expenses.
Microsoft reportedly laid off 200 employees, less than a month after the Redmond, Wash.-based tech giant announced it would cut 1% of its 180,000 workers, Business Insider reported, with the cuts coming in the company’s modern life experiences team.
Fast casual salad shop Sweetgreen cut 5% of its corporate workforce, attributing company losses to a slow return to the office and lingering Covid-19 cases, in a conference call, CNBC reported.
Website design company Wix.com made its second round of layoffs this year, cutting 100 employees as company President and COO Nir Zohar told Israeli newspaper Calcalist, “the world has experienced an economic crisis and we have seen U.S. GDP fall without growth.”
Canadian social media management company Hootsuite reportedly announced plans to cut 30% of its estimated 1,000 employees.
Groupon unveiled plans to lay off 15% of its workforce (500 employees), primarily in the company’s technology and sales departments, with CEO Kedar Deshpande writing in a message to employees obtained by Forbes, “our cost structure and our performance are not aligned.”
Snap, the California-based developer of mobile app Snapchat, started laying off an undisclosed number of its 6,000 employees, following a disappointing earnings report released last month, The Verge reported, citing anonymous sources.
iRobot, the maker of Roomba, cut 10% of its workforce (140 employees), as the company restructures after being purchased by Amazon for $1.7 billion, the company told Forbes, adding the job cuts were not related to the acquisition.
California-based video game developer Jam City laid off between 150-200 employees — roughly 17% of its workforce — VentureBeat reported, stating the cuts come “in light of the challenging global economy and its impact on the gaming industry.”
Walmart—the largest private employer in the United States—plans to cut 200 of its corporate employees as the company seeks to restructure, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing anonymous sources.
Online brokerage Robinhood cut 23% of its staff, with CEO Vlad Tenev citing a drop in trading activity, high inflation and a “broad crypto market crash”—the move comes after Robinhood laid off 9% of its full-time employees in April, a set of cuts Tenev says “did not go far enough.”
Texas-based data technology giant Oracle started laying off an undisclosed number of its estimated 143,000 employees, as part of a larger plan to cut thousands, The Information reported, citing an unnamed source (rumors of job cuts at Oracle have been speculated for nearly a month).
Fitness company F45 Training laid off 110 employees, or 45% of its workforce, as CEO Adam Gilchrist stepped down.
E-commerce company Shopify became the latest company to lay off employees, cutting ties with 1,000 (10% of its workforce), CEO Tobi Lutke announced, saying skyrocketing demand for online shopping during the pandemic has leveled off, and that the company made a bet that “didn’t pay off.”
Boston tech-watch company Whoop slashed 15% of its workforce, telling the Boston Globe it now has 550 employees (meaning it cut close to 97) adding in a statement, “given how negatively the macro environment has evolved, we need to grow responsibly and control our own destiny.”
7-Eleven, which operates 13,000 convenience stores across North America, cut 880 U.S. corporate jobs, just over a year after it completed a $21 billion deal to purchase Speedway.
Seattle real estate startup Flyhome axed 20% of its staff, reported to be close to 200 workers, as the company navigates “uncertain economic conditions.”
Ford plans to lay off up to 8,000 employees as the automaker seeks to pivot away from gas-powered cars and toward electric vehicle production, Bloomberg reported.
Vimeo CEO Anjali Sud announced on LinkedIn the online video company is cutting 6% of its workforce to “come out of this economic downturn a stronger company.”
Ohio-based automated health software startup Olive laid off 450 employees, nearly 35% of the company, as CEO Sean Lane admitted the company’s commitment to “act with urgency” led to a hiring spree that proved to be too much to handle, prompting him to “rethink this approach.”
Crypto exchange Gemini cut 68 employees—or 7% of its staff—less than two months after it let go of 10% of its workforce, according to TechCrunch.
OpenSea, the New-York based non-fungible token (NFT) company, announced in a tweet it laid off 20% of its staff over fears of “broad macroeconomic instability” with the possibility of “prolonged downturn.”
Online ordering startup ChowNow laid off 100 people, TechCrunch reported, as it reels back from a “large and ambitious” budget it couldn’t meet amid fears a stunted market could fuel a recession.
Tonal, the at-home fitness company, cut 35% of its workforce amid a worsening “macroeconomic climate and global supply chain challenges.”
Tesla laid off 229 employees, primarily in its autopilot division, and shut down its San Mateo, California, office, just weeks after CEO Elon Musk sent an email to executives, saying he had a “super bad feeling” about the economy and planned to cut 10% of his workforce, Reuters reported.
Some 1,500 employees at the international delivery startup Gopuff were let go, (10% of its staff) and 76 of its U.S. warehouses were shut down, according to a letter to investors first reported by Bloomberg, as the company moves away from a growth-at-all-costs model.
California-based mortgage lender loanDepot announced plans to lay off 2,000 workers by the end of the year, bringing its 2022 layoffs to 4,800 — more than half of the company’s 8,500 employees — as the housing market “contracted sharply and abruptly,” CEO Frank Martell said in a statement.
Electric automaker Rivian unveiled plans to lay off 5% of the company’s 14,000 employees in areas that grew “too quickly” during the pandemic and to halt hiring of non-factory workers, according to an internal email from CEO RJ Scaringe, Bloomberg reported.
Real estate firm Re/Max announced plans to lay off 17% of its workforce by the end of the year, with a goal of bringing in $100 million in annual mortgage-related revenue by 2028.
JPMorgan Chase — the nation’s largest bank — laid off and reassigned more than 1,000 of its 274,948 employees, citing rising mortgage rates and increased inflation.
Real estate companies Compass and Redfin announced plans to cut 10% and 8% of their workforces, respectively, following a 3.4% drop in home sales from April to May, according to the National Association of Realtors, amid concerns the once red-hot housing market had cooled.
Some 1,100 Coinbase employees learned they had been released after losing access to their work emails, marking an 18% reduction in the crypto company’s staff — a move that CEO Brian Armstrong called essential to “stay healthy during this economic downturn” — and a warning sign of a recession and a “crypto winter” after a 10-plus-year crypto boom.
Used car seller Carvana CEO Ernie Garcia III sent an email to 2,500 employees — 12% of the company’s workforce — informing them they had lost their jobs, one week after freezing new hiring, as the company embraced for what looked like a looming recession in car sales, and reports of a “spendthrift” business style had come back to bite the company.
Many experts warned the U.S. may be headed toward recession following reports the economy contracted 1.6% in the first quarter of the year. Those fears were reignited following Federal Reserve’s announcement in June to raise interest rates by 75 basis points, its largest rate hike in 28 years. After the rate hike — the first of two from the Federal Reserve this summer — economists at S&P Global Ratings forecast a 2.4% drop in GDP by year’s end, a reverse in course from earlier forecasts of 2.4% growth. Bank of America issued a warning last month that “economic momentum has faded,” and a “mild recession” is possible by the end of the year. Then, over the past month, warning signs seemed to be tapering off. The latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed an 8.5% spike in inflation from last July, a sign that the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes could be cooling inflation, one month after a 9.1% year-over-year spike in June. House Democrats earlier this month passed an ambitious piece of legislation, after hours of debate, aimed at curbing inflation, sending the $437 billion Inflation Reduction Act to President Joe Biden, who signed it on Monday.
In an interview with the Washington Post last month, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Labor Julie Su said she was optimistic the economy will rebound, citing 9 million jobs created since President Joe Biden took office, and 372,000 new jobs in June. Earlier this month, however, unemployment claims reported by the Department of Labor jumped to a nine-month high, with roughly 262,000 people filed initial jobless claims.
51%. That’s the share of corporate executives that have implemented or plan to implement job cuts, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers survey of 722 executives released Thursday. In addition to laying off employees, 52% of respondents said they’ve made hiring freezes or plan to.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2022/09/02/credit-suisse-softbank-reportedly-planning-layoffs-here-are-the-major-job-cuts-amid-growing-recession-fears/