List of the tech companies hitting the brakes on hiring, including Google, Tesla, and more

List of all the tech companies hitting the brakes on hiring, including Google, Tesla, and more

Alphabet’s Google is the latest tech company to hit the brakes on hiring amid tightening Fed monetary policy and recession concerns.

According to an email from CEO Sundar Pachai to staff that news organizations have access to, the internet giant will reduce hiring this quarter. Google will give engineers and other critical roles priority.

The action is comparable to Meta’s (META) most recent proposal to reduce new hiring. The CEO of the social media behemoth, Mark Zuckerberg, issued an economic downturn warning on June 30.

During a weekly Q&A session filmed and witnessed by Reuters, Zuckerberg told employees, “If I had to wager, I’d say that this might be one of the worst downturns we’ve experienced in recent history.”

Tesla CEO Elon Musk had earlier in June announced a worldwide hiring halt due to a “very terrible feeling” about the economy.

Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan, foresaw an impending “economic cyclone” as the Federal Reserve used its strategy of normalizing interest rates.

Layoff offers that were withdrawn and hiring freezes all increased last quarter as equities fell across the board for the S&P 500. After consumer discretionary, the industries with the weakest performance were communications services and technology. The S&P 500 finished the year’s first half with its largest loss since 1970.

Let’s examine how tech firms react to a stock market downturn and a weakening global economy.

1. Alphabet 

With its headquarters in Mountain View, California, Alphabet Inc. is an American global technological conglomerate holding company. On October 2, 2015, Google underwent a restructuring that resulted in its creation. As a result, it became the parent company of Google and numerous previous Google subsidiaries. By revenue, Alphabet is the third-largest technology corporation in the world and one of the most valuable businesses. Along with Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Meta, and Meta, it is one of the Big Five American information technology businesses.

Hiring freeze:

According to an email from CEO Sundar Pachai to colleagues that Bloomberg was able to get, the tech giant will reduce hiring for the remainder of the year. “The shaky state of the world economy has been on everyone’s mind. We are not immune to economic challenges, like all businesses,” Pichai wrote. “We’ll be decreasing the pace of hiring for the remainder of the year while continuing to promote our most crucial positions,” he continued. In 2022 and the following year, the corporation intends to concentrate hiring efforts on “engineering, technical and other important skills.” In total, Alphabet has around 150,000 employees.

2. Meta

The American international technological corporation Meta Platforms, Inc., doing business as Meta and formerly known as Facebook, Inc. and TheFacebook, Inc., is situated in Menlo Park, California. The firm, among other things, is the owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

One of the most valuable corporations in the world is Meta. Along with Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft, it is regarded as one of the Big Five American technological giants. In 2021, the company generated 97.5% of its revenue from the sale of advertisement placements to marketers. 

Hiring freeze:

According to Reuters, Facebook’s parent corporation intends to reduce its engineer hiring ambitions by at least 30%.

After initially setting a target closer to 10,000, CEO Mark Zuckerberg informed staff in late June that the business now plans to hire between 6,000 and 7,000 engineers by 2022. Although Meta had stated that it would restrict the number of new hires it would accept in May; specific numbers had not been disclosed. As of March 31, 2022, the social media giant employed 77,805 people worldwide.

3. Spotify

Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon founded Spotify, a privately held Swedish provider of media services, including audio streaming, on April 23, 2006. It is one of the largest music streaming services, with 422 million monthly active users as of March 2022, including 182 million premium customers. Spotify is traded as American depositary receipts on the New York Stock Exchange.

The New York Times’ Ben Sisario estimates that 13,000 out of the seven million artists on Spotify will receive $50,000 or more payouts in 2020.

Hiring freeze:

The biggest streaming service in the world has been on a spending binge, pouring money into its podcast section to delve further into the higher-profit industry. However, the business is not immune to the current economic climate.

According to Bloomberg, Spotify will scale back its hiring goals by 25%. While the firm will still hire new personnel in the coming year, it will do so with fewer people.

4. Redfin 

A full-service real estate brokerage is Redfin. The Seattle-based business was established in 2004 and went public in August of the same year. The CEO is Glenn Kelman. Redfin uses a lower listing fee of either 1.0 or 1.5 per cent from the seller as the foundation of its business strategy to undercut rivals. This excludes any additional fee the seller pays to the brokerage acting as the buyer’s agent. This latter cost typically ranges from 2.0 to 3.0 per cent. Additionally, buyers who use Redfin receive a percentage of the brokerage commission back (known as the Redfin Refund), which they can use to cover closing costs or receive as a tax-free check following the closing of their home purchase.

Hiring freeze:

Redfin, an online real estate platform, stated it is cutting off around 8% of its personnel. CEO Glenn Kelman cited the ongoing slowdown in the housing market and a steep increase in mortgage rates as reasons for the layoffs.

While the business raised hundreds of millions to avoid layoffs, Kelman claims that the fall in home sales necessitated the change. In a news statement, Kelman stated, “We’re losing many good employees today, but for the remainder to want to stay, we must raise Redfin’s value.”

“And we need to generate revenue to raise our value. We owe it to everyone who has contributed their time or money to this business to make it successful and eventually very successful.”

5. Coinbase 

An American publicly traded firm called Coinbase Global, Inc., doing business as Coinbase, runs a bitcoin exchange platform. All employees at dispersed corporation Coinbase work remotely, and the business has no physical headquarters. By trading volume, it is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the country. In 2012, Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam launched the business.

Hiring freeze: 

Citing a slump in the economy, the cryptocurrency trading platform says it is cutting off around 18% of its workers. In a statement to staff members, CEO Brian Armstrong stated, “We appear to be entering a recession. A recession might trigger a new crypto winter and endure for a considerable time.”

Armstrong added that the business expanded too quickly while the market was bullish. After the recent collapse in cryptocurrency values, the statement of June 14 was made. In the past, Coinbase had declared it would maintain its recruiting ban for the foreseeable future. The company employs around 4,900 people.

 

6. Stitch Fix 

There is a personal styling service called Stitch Fix in the United States and the United Kingdom. It employs recommendation algorithms and data science to customize clothing items based on size, price, and style. The business was established in 2011 and had an IPO in 2017 with a $1.6 billion valuation. In 2018, Stitch Fix claimed more than $1 billion in sales, and by June 2020, it had 3.4 million clients. Its headquarters are in San Francisco, California, and it has 8,000 employees worldwide.

Hiring freeze:

According to Reuters, Stitch Fix eliminates 15% of its salaried staff. On June 9, the online styling service informed staff that it would eliminate roughly 330 corporate and styling leadership positions that do not involve technology. In a note to staff, CEO Elizabeth Spaulding stated that the option “was one we needed to make to position ourselves for profitable growth… There will be unpleasant choices along the way, and this is one of those.” About 11,260 people work for Stitch Fix.

7. Intel

The technology company Intel Corporation, also known simply as Intel, is a multinational American business headquartered in Santa Clara, California. For nearly a decade, from the 2007 to 2016 fiscal year, Intel was placed No. 45 on the 2020 Fortune 500 ranking of the largest American firms by total revenue. Intel is the world’s largest manufacturer of semiconductor chips by revenue.

Intel provides processors for computer system producers, including Acer, Lenovo, HP, and Dell. Along with producing embedded processors, flash memory, graphics chips, network interface controllers, and motherboard chipsets, Intel also produces additional computing and communication-related products.

Hiring freeze:

The hiring process at Intel’s PC and laptop chip division is on hold. The cost-cutting move was disclosed in a June document that Reuters reviewed. Within its client computing division, the company is “pausing all hiring and placing all job requisitions on hold,” according to the memo. 122,900 people work full-time for Intel.

8. Bird Global

Based in Miami, Florida, Bird Global is a micro-mobility business. Since its founding in September 2017, Bird has provided short-term rental electric scooters to more than 400 cities.

Hiring freeze:

Layoffs.fyi reports that the vehicle sharing platform is laying off 23% of its workforce. The startup confirmed the layoffs in an email to TechCrunch on June 7, citing “macroeconomic circumstances” as having expedited its ambitions for profitability. The statement continued, “This road required us to cut our cost structure in a way that allows us to extend our service safely and sustainably beyond the more than 400 places we operate in now. 572 people work full-time for Bird.”

9. Tesla

Tesla is an American multinational automotive and clean energy company headquartered in Austin, Texas. It designs and manufactures solar panels, solar roof tiles, electric vehicles (electric cars and trucks), residential and grid-scale battery energy storage, and other associated goods and services. It has a market value of more than US$760 billion, and is one of the most valuable companies in the world and continues to be the most valuable automobile. 

With a $6.5 million investment in February 2004, Elon Musk rose to the position of the company’s largest shareholder. He assumed the position of CEO in 2008. Musk claims that Tesla’s goal is to hasten the transition to environmentally friendly energy and transportation, using solar energy and electric vehicles as the primary sources.

Hiring freeze: 

In addition to Musk’s email to executives, the CEO of the world’s largest electric vehicle company also informed staff on Friday, June 3, of plans to reduce employment by 10%. Musk stated in the note that “this does not apply to anyone actually producing automobiles, battery packs, or putting solar.” After terminating over 100,000 employees worldwide, Tesla terminated roughly 200 autopilot jobs in late June.

10. Nvidia

Nvidia Corporation, also known simply as Nvidia, is an American global technology firm with headquarters in Santa Clara, California and a Delaware incorporation. It is a software and fabless firm that creates system-on-a-chip (SoC) units for the mobile computing and automotive markets, graphics processing units (GPUs), application programming interfaces (APIs) for data science and high-performance computing, and more.

Nvidia dominates hardware and software for artificial intelligence. It uses GPUs from its professional range in workstations for applications in industries like architecture, engineering and construction, media and entertainment, automotive, scientific research, and manufacturing design.

Hiring freeze:

Similar to the chip industry, Nvidia is currently putting the brakes on hiring. According to CFO Colette Kress, the graphics card industry leader will reduce hiring in the second half of its fiscal 2023 to integrate the already employed staff. Nvidia missed analysts’ expectations for its Q2 and announced it would suffer a $500 million loss due to China’s COVID lockdowns and ceasing shipments in Russia. 22,473 people work for the organization at 57 locations across the world.

11. Microsoft 

Microsoft Corporation, also known as Microsoft, is a multinational technology company headquartered in Redmond, Washington, in the United States. It manufactures computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services. The Windows range of operating systems, the Microsoft Office package, and the Internet Explorer and Edge web browsers are some of its best-known software offerings.

The two main hardware offerings are the Xbox video gaming consoles and the Microsoft Surface range of touchscreen personal PCs. Microsoft, the largest software company in the world by sales as of 2016, was ranked No. 21 in the 2020 Fortune 500 rankings of the biggest American firms. Along with Google, Amazon, Apple, and Meta, it is one of the Big Five American technological firms.

Hiring freeze:

Microsoft informed Bloomberg in May that it was delaying hiring for its Office, Windows, and Teams groups to better position itself for the upcoming fiscal year and deal with the present economic climate. The software giant with headquarters in Redmond announced good Q3 earnings with a 26 per cent rise in cloud revenue over the prior year, but the firm reduced its Q4 revenue and earnings estimate downward in early June, citing the impact of currency fluctuations. The tech giant employs 181,000 people.

12. Netflix

American subscription streaming service and production firm Netflix, Inc. Launched on August 29, 1997, it provides a collection of movies and TV shows through licencing agreements in addition to its works, dubbed Netflix Originals.

Over 221.6 million were Netflix subscribers worldwide as of March 31, 2022. Except for Mainland China, Syria, North Korea, and Russia, it is accessible everywhere. Netflix is a member of the Motion Picture Association and has played a major role in the distribution of independent movies (MPA).

Hiring freeze:

Last month, Netflix announced that it would block hiring while reducing expenditures due to the streaming giant’s 11,000-person workforce by roughly 150 roles. According to a Netflix representative, “These changes are generally motivated by business needs rather than individual performance, which makes them extremely challenging as none of us wants to say goodbye to such terrific colleagues.” Approximately 11,300 people work at Netflix.

13. Lyft 

An American company called Lyft, Inc. creates, distributes, and manages a smartphone application that includes ride-hailing, vehicles for hire, motorized scooters, a bicycle-sharing programme, rental cars, and food delivery. It has a San Francisco, California, basis and operates in 645 American cities and 10 Canadian cities. Lyft does not own automobiles; instead, it makes money from each reservation. The consumer receives a quotation for the fare in advance, but it can change according to the supply and demand in the area at the time of the booking.

Lyft is the second-largest ride-sharing firm in the United States as of 2022, behind Uber, with a market share of 29%.

Hiring freeze:

Although it vowed there would be no layoffs, the ride-hailing business declared it would scale down hiring and decrease costs. Lyft president John Zimmer stated in an internal message seen by The Wall Street Journal that “it’s clear from our discussions with other business leaders that every firm is taking a hard look at how they respond to concerns about an economic slowdown and the dramatically changed investor sentiment.” Currently, Lyft employs roughly 4,791 people.

14. Snap

Snap Inc., originally known as Snapchat Inc., developed the multi-media instant messaging service and software in the United States. Images and messages on Snapchat are frequently only accessible for a small period of time before they are lost to the recipients’ view. This is one of its key features.

The app’s primary focus was peer-to-peer photo sharing. Still, it has expanded to include users’ “Stories,” which contain 24 hours’ worth of historical information, and “Discover,” which enables businesses to provide a brief, ad-supported content. The “my eyes only” portion of the website allows users to store photos in a password-protected area where they may keep them safe. End-to-end encryption has apparently also been used, albeit in a limited capacity, with hopes to expand its application in the future.

Hiring freeze: 

Snap recently warned that it would not fulfil its revenue targets and announced plans to cut costs. Snapchat’s parent business announced that employment would be reduced. CEO Evan Spiegel wrote in a May internal communication to the team, “Moving forward, we will be making efforts to reprioritize our investments – continuing to spend across our business priorities, but often doing so at a slower pace than we had planned given the operating situation.” The social networking company employs 5,661 people.

15. Wayfair 

Furniture and home goods are sold online by American e-commerce giant Wayfair Inc., which has its headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts. It was established in 2002, went under the name CSN Stores, and now sells 14 million products from more than 11,000 international vendors. It has offices and warehouses in the US, Canada, Ireland, Germany, and the UK.

Wayfair runs five retail websites under its brand names: Birch Lane, AllModern, Joss & Main, and Perigold.

Hiring freeze:

Wayfair, a major online retailer, declared a hiring embargo for 90 days in May. The e-commerce platform stated to Yahoo Finance that it was “pleased that usual seasonal sales tendencies are taking hold, but we sense a great deal of uncertainty in the general economy and believe it’s important to make certain adjustments that will allow us to control our destiny.” The company employs 16,681 individuals.

16. Uber 

The American mobility as a service company Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber) enables customers to reserve a vehicle and driver for transportation in a manner akin to a taxi. Its headquarters are in San Francisco, and as of 2021, it will operate in almost 10,500 locations across 72 countries. Ride-hailing, food delivery (Uber Eats and Postmates), package delivery, courier services, freight transportation, the rental of electric bicycles and motorized scooters through a partnership with Lime, and Thames Clipper river bus transportation through a partnership with local operators are just a few of the company’s services.

Although it owns no vehicles, Uber makes money from every booking. The consumer is given a price in advance for the fare, which varies based on a dynamic pricing model that considers the local supply and demand at the time of the booking.

Hiring freeze:

Uber’s CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, announced in early May that the ride-sharing firm would reduce hiring and make cost reductions. “Spending on incentives and marketing that is less effective will be reduced. We’ll be selective about when and where we recruit staff, treating hiring as a privilege,” Reuters was able to view an email from Khosrowshahi. The business employs 29,300 people.

 

17. Carvana 

Carvana is an online used car retailer based in Tempe, Arizona. The business, which is renowned for its multi-storey automobile vending machines, is the fastest growing online used car dealer in the United States. One of the newest firms to be included on the Fortune 500 List for 2021 is Carvana.

Hiring freeze:

Carvana, an online dealer in used cars, recently let go of 2,500 workers or 14% of its workforce. Over a Zoom call, the startup let go of many of its staff. The business claimed that “recent macroeconomic conditions have pushed car retail into recession.” Carvana, which employs 21,000 people, said in a statement that its growth is slower than what it had anticipated for 2022 and that it has therefore had to make the tough decision to scale back some of its operations teams.

18. Twitter

Owned by the American firm Twitter, Inc., Twitter is a microblogging and social networking site where users can post and engage with messages known as “tweets.” Unregistered users can only read tweets that are made publicly accessible; registered users can write, like, and retweet tweets.

Hiring freeze:

Twitter suspended hiring in May and announced it would reclaim some job offers before a buyout bid from Musk. According to the message, the social media business reduced expenses for things like travel, consultancy, and marketing. At Twitter, about 7,500 people are working.

19. Apple

Apple Inc. is a multinational technology firm headquartered in Cupertino, California, focusing on consumer goods, software, and online services. With a revenue of US$365.8 billion in 2021, Apple is the largest technology company by revenue.

As of May 2022, it was also the second-largest company in the world by market capitalization, the fourth-largest vendor of personal computers by unit sales, and the second-largest manufacturer of mobile phones. Together with Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta, it is one of the Big Five American IT firms.

Hiring freeze:

According to Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly reducing employee hiring at its retail outlets despite not making any changes at the corporate level. In particular, the iPhone manufacturer is delaying hiring for some of its tech assistance Genius positions at retail locations. According to a recent Bloomberg story, Apple will maintain a constant level of iPhone orders yearly. The multinational tech company has 154,000 employees.

20. Robinhood Markets 

Robinhood Markets, Inc., an American financial services firm headquartered in Menlo Park, California, allows commission-free trading of stocks, exchange-traded funds, and cryptocurrencies through a smartphone app released in March 2015. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has registered Robinhood as a broker-dealer and is part of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation. Interest on customers’ cash balances, selling order information to high-frequency traders, and margin lending are the three main sources of the company’s revenue.

Robinhood had 15.9 million monthly active users as of April 2022 and 22.8 million funded accounts. Robinhood released a cryptocurrency wallet to more than 2 million consumers in April 2022.

Hiring freeze: 

CEO Vlad Tenev wrote in a blog post to staff, “As you know, throughout 2020 and H1 2021, we went through a period of hyper-growth spurred by various variables like pandemic lockdowns, cheap loan rates, and fiscal stimulus.” The brokerage platform employs 3,800 full-time employees.

21. DoorDash 

An American business called DoorDash, Inc. runs an online meal ordering and delivery platform. DoorDash was listed on the NYSE in December 2020, trading with the ticker DASH. Its headquarters are in San Francisco, California, in the US.

It is the largest food delivery business in the US, holding a 56 per cent market share. Additionally, it holds a 60 per cent market share in the delivery sector for convenience. As of December 31, 2020, the platform was used by 450,000 merchants, 20,000,000 consumers, and one million deliverers.

A million deliverers, 20,000,000 customers, and 450 000 merchants were using the platform as of December 31, 2020.

Hiring freeze:

The meal delivery service gave employees advance notice of a pause in hiring in April. The number of employees at Doordash grew by more than 50% to 8,600 last year. According to reports, the corporation wants to reduce its count this year to between 10% and 15%. 8,600 people are employed at DoorDash.

22. Peloton

The leading group or pack of cyclists in a road cycling race is known as the peloton (from French, originally meaning “platoon”). Riders in a group conserve energy by following closely behind (drafting or slipstreaming) other riders. The reduction in drag is significant; when riding in the middle of a strong group, drag can be as low as 5 to 10 per cent. Utilizing this potential energy savings results in intricate cooperative and antagonistic exchanges between riders and teams during race strategy. The phrase is also used to describe the entire group of professional riders.

Hiring freeze:

Peloton said in February that it would eliminate 2,800 positions as part of a strategic shift. After a tough quarter and declining demand, the manufacturer of connected workout equipment announced that CEO John Foley was leaving. There are 8,662 full-time employees at the business.

edited and proofread by nikita sharma