Goldman Sachs plans to cut thousands of workers. Here are the other major US companies that have made cuts in 2022, from Amazon to Twitter.
- A wave of layoffs has swept across American businesses in 2022.
- The cuts stem from slower business growth, paired with rising labor costs.
- The layoffs span across industries, from mortgage lending to digital-payment processing.
Goldman Sachs is the latest company to plan a major round of layoffs.
The investment banking giant is set to lay off up to 8% of its staff as soon as January, according to a person familiar with the cuts.
Goldman's planned headcount reduction follows similar cuts from Citi and Morgan Stanley.
The banks join a growing number of American businesses that have picked up the pace of firing in 2022. Last month, Amazon announced plans to lay off as many as 10,000 workers across divisions, including devices, retail, and human resources. Peloton has laid off thousands of employees this year. Twitter slashed 50% of its workforce.
Even traditionally layoff-resistant companies like Netflix have made cuts, and now companies that saw a pandemic-era boom, like Shopify, are cutting hundreds of jobs.
The reason, broadly, is twofold: business growth is slowing while labor costs are increasing. The combination is causing American companies across a variety of industries to slash headcount.
Here are some of the most notable examples so far:
Stellantis, which makes Jeep, Chrysler, and Dodge cars, confirmed that it plans to idle an assembly plant in Belvidere, Illinois, starting in February 2023, resulting in permanent layoffs for roughly 1,350 workers.
The company attributed the layoffs to the "increasing cost related to the electrification of the automotive market."
Headspace Health, which makes a popular meditation app, is the latest internet startup to cut workers amid a stalling economy, laying off 50 workers earlier this month. Calm, a competitor to Headspace, had layoffs earlier this year, as well.
Goldman Sachs has laid plans to fire up to 8% of its staff after the new year, according to a person familiar with the cuts.
The layoffs were initially reported by Semafor, which said that 4,000 workers' jobs might be on the line. Goldman's headcount was 49,100 as of September, according to a report by Insider.
Morgan Stanley cut 2% of its more than 81,000 employees, according to a report by CNBC. It follows similar cuts from other banks like Goldman Sachs and Citigroup.
The practice of big banks' trimming headcounts after performance reviews was put on hold during the Covid-19 pandemic, but many companies have recently reinstated the practice. According to CNBC, banks typically trim 1% to 5% of the weakest performers before bonuses are paid out.
CNN's new CEO Chris Licht announced a huge layoff plan that would affect "hundreds" of the company's 3,000 employees, according to a report by Insider. Licht described the layoffs as a "gut punch" to the company.
Paid on-air contributors were notified first, and full-time employees were told the next day. Licht had initially pledged that there would be no layoffs when taking the role of CNN's CEO in April 2022, but later changed course.
The digital media company cut about 180 workers, citing "challenging macroeconomic conditions," according to an SEC filing.
"In order for BuzzFeed to weather an economic downturn that I believe will extend well into 2023, we must adapt, invest in our strategy to serve our audience best, and readjust our cost structure," CEO Jonah Peretti wrote in a memo to staffers seen by Variety.
Pepsi is paying off workers in its US snacks and beverage division, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.
The report didn't provide an exact headcount reduction at Pepsi, but the cuts reportedly affect workers in Purchase, NY, Chicago, and Plano, TX.
According to a memo seen by the Journal, the cuts are meant "to simplify the organization so we can operate more efficiently."
Carvana plans to lay off 1,500 people, or about 8% of its workforce. The cuts will mainly impact Carvana's corporate and tech departments, CNBC reported.
"Today is a difficult day. The world around us has continued to get tougher and to do what is best for the business, we have to make some painful choices to adapt," CEO Ernest Garcia III wrote in an email to employees obtained by CNBC.
It's the second round of layoffs for Cavana this year. In May, the online car dealer cut 12% of its staff, or about 2,500 employees, according to a regulatory filing.
Amazon is planning to cut roughly 10,000 tech and corporate roles, The New York Times first reported. The cuts, which would be equivalent to about 3% of Amazon's corporate workforce, would be the largest in company history.
This comes after Amazon abandoned multiple projects this year in an effort to cut costs, which led to at least 560 layoffs. The employees worked on some of Amazon's physical store concepts and its shuttered telehealth unit, as well as other divisions like robotics and online education. The company also laid off workers in two of its warehouses in Maryland in October.
DoorDash is laying off an estimated 1,250 employees, or 6% of its global workforce, to reduce operating costs after a period of mounting losses. The food delivery company grew rapidly during the pandemic, but has struggled against rising competition in the sector and the looming economic recession.
"While our business continues to grow fast, given how quickly we hired, our operating expenses — if left unabated — would continue to outgrow our revenue," DoorDash CEO Tony Xu wrote in a letter to staff on Nov. 30, per Bloomberg.
The H&M Group announced on Nov. 30 it will cut 1,500 positions as part of a global effort "to reduce costs and further improve efficiency in the business."
An H&M spokesperson told Insider the impacted roles are largely within the company's tech organization in Sweden, noting stores are not part of the terminations. The spokesperson said the layoffs also include some staffers in "central functions, both employees and consultants."
In a press release, the company said the reductions will help reduce "administrative and overhead costs" by 2 billion Swedish Krona, the equivalent of nearly $200 million.
"The cost and efficiency program that we have initiated involves reviewing our organization and we are very mindful of the fact that colleagues will be affected by this," H&M Group CEO Helena Helmersson said in a statement. "We will support our colleagues in finding the best possible solution for their next step."
Edelman, the global public relations firm, is slashing 130 jobs as it conducts a "strategic review" of the company, as first reported by Politico.
In an email sent to employees on Nov. 30, CEO Richard Edelman wrote that the cuts where "necessary amid current headwinds" and part of a larger effort that also involves a hiring freeze and reduced spending on travel and events.
"Employees impacted by this reduction have been contacted and will be provided with information and resources to support their transition," Edeman wrote in the email reviewed by Politico.
E-cigarette company Juul plans to lay off about a third of its workforce, or roughly 400 people.
The cuts come amid broader cost-saving measures for Juul, including a fresh infusion of cash to help it avoid filing for bankruptcy. The company also plans to reduce its operating budget by as much as 40%, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Crypto exchange platform Coinbase will cut another 60 jobs, The Information reported.
The cuts come after Coinbase previously reduced its staff by 18% "to ensure we stay healthy during this economic downturn."
That same day, over 1,000 employees were notified they'd been laid off when they were unable to log into their work email accounts — the company said in a regulatory filing at the time that its workforce would be reduced to about 5,000 employees by the end of the second quarter of 2022.
Real-estate firm Redfin plans to lay off 862 employees, or about 13% of its workforce.
The company plans to shut down its home-flipping business, RedfinNow, which will result in 264 staffers getting cut, the company said in a financial filing.
Another 218 employees' roles will be eliminated, but the workers are being offered a new job within the company, Redfin said.
This is the second round of layoffs for Redfin this year. The company cut 6% of its workforce in June, or about 470 employees.
Meta plans to cut more than 11,000 employees, or about 13% of its workforce.
"I want to take accountability for these decisions and for how we got here," CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a blog post. "I know this is tough for everyone, and I'm especially sorry to those impacted."
The company plans to reduce headcount across divisions — including its metaverse division, Reality Labs — but said that some teams, like recruiting, would be more impacted than others.
Salesforce plans to cut thousands of jobs ahead of Thanksgiving, Protocol reported.
It's unclear when the layoffs will begin or which divisions will be impacted, though as many as 2,500 workers could be impacted, according to Protocol.
An estimated 3,700 Twitter employees, or about 50% of the company's workforce, woke up to emails saying that they had been laid off on Nov. 4, shortly after new owner Elon Musk took over the social platform.
Terminated employees were notified in blunt emails that Twitter was "conducting a workforce reduction to help improve the health of the company" and offered severance.
Though staffers had been previously warned about a pending "workforce reduction," several employees were immediately locked out of their laptops and company systems before they were notified they were terminated, Insider reported.
Musk tweeted after the mass layoffs that he had "no choice when the company is losing over $4M/day."
Gap will cut 5% of its corporate workforce, or about 500 employees, The Wall Street Journal reported.
"We've let our operating costs increase at a faster rate than our sales, and in turn our profitability," Gap's interim CEO, Bob Martin, wrote in a memo to employees obtained by The Journal.
The layoffs will reportedly impact employees in a wide range of departments and will mainly take place at Gap's offices in San Francisco, New York, and Asia.
Snap planned to lay off about 20% of its employees beginning in late August, The Verge reported.
The cuts to Snap's 6,400-person workforce will be concentrated in divisions like Zenly, a social mapping app Snap acquired in 2017, as well as a team working on ways for developers to build apps inside Snapchat. Snap's hardware division will also see cuts, weeks after the company announced it was canceling its Pixy drone camera, The Verge reports.
A spokesperson for Snap declined to comment.
Furniture and home goods company, Wayfair, said it would layoff about 870 employees — 5% of its global workforce — the Wall Street Journal reported. The layoffs represent about 10% of Wayfair's corporate team, the company said, and will cost between $30 million and $40 million for severance and benefits for laid-off employees.
The layoffs are part of Wayfair's efforts to manage expenses and investments, it said. The company said it's also making cuts to third-party labor costs.
After the company announced the layoffs, Wayfair shares fell almost 10% in premarket trading, the WSJ reported.
During the pandemic, so-called "meme stocks" from GameStop and AMC exploded. Much of that explosion in stock value was driven by accessible trading platforms like Robinhood.
And while new users piled in during the pandemic, Robinhood hired rapidly. Between 2020 and 2021, Robinhood staff grew dramatically: from 700 people to around 3,800, according to CEO Vlad Tenev. But that growth was apparently too much and too fast, and Robinhood was forced to slash headcount by 9% — more than 300 people altogether — in April.
Then, in August, the company announced it would cut another 800 jobs, or about 23% of its staff.
In the message to employees, CEO Vlad Tenev said that the earlier round of layoffs "did not go far enough" to bring down costs amid record inflation and the crypto market crash, which has reduced trading activity on the platform, he said.
In early October, Peloton announced its fourth set of layoffs, bringing the total loss in headcount at the company to more than 4,600 this year.
CEO Barry McCarthy called it "the final phase of the company's transformation journey."
In February, Peloton fired over 2,800 people and announced its former CEO, John Foley, would depart amid an ongoing downturn in the company's business.
Its second round of layoffs hit Taiwan-based employees in July, and a third wave of employees got cut in August.
Peloton was once a pandemic darling, but the fading popularity of at-home fitness and mishandling of its logistics operation has put a strain on the business. The company's current chief exec Barry McCarthy has taken several measures in an attempt to revive the business.
Shopify laid off roughly 1,000 employees, equivalent to 10% of its workforce worldwide.
In a memo to employees, CEO Tobi Lutke said that the company — which makes the tech that powers businesses' online stores — had bet big on the pandemic-era e-commerce boom.
"It's now clear that bet didn't pay off. Ultimately, placing this bet was my call to make and I got this wrong," Lutke wrote in the letter, which was posted on the company's website.
Convenience store chain 7-Eleven cut 880 corporate jobs in Ohio and Texas in 2022 in the wake of the company's 2020 purchase of rival Speedway.
A 7-Eleven spokesperson told Insider that the company has been assessing its new corporate structure and undergoing an "integration process" that led to the cuts, which took place at its support centers and field-support operations in Irving, Texas, and Enon, Ohio.
Video-hosting platform Vimeo cut 6% of its staff in July.
"We are making this decision in order to ensure we come out of this economic downturn a stronger company," Vimeo CEO Anijali Sud wrote in a blog post. "Our people are what makes Vimeo great, and losing any of them is a personal failure that I feel deeply. But after assessing the challenging market conditions and uncertainty ahead, I believe this is the responsible action to take."
Tesla laid off 229 people in late June, according to WARN filings.
The layoffs primarily impacted employees in its Autopilot division. Tesla also closed an entire office in San Mateo, California, and moved some of the office's workers to another location, Bloomberg reported.
In an interview in June, Elon Musk said he planned to cut between 3% and 3.5% of Tesla's workforce, including 10% of salaried staff. Insider reported that some ex-employees confirmed they had been laid off, though the total number is not known.
Electric car-maker Rivian confirmed in July that it would cut around 800 employees, or about 6% of its 14,000-person workforce, as it worked to cut costs.
The layoffs came less than a year after Rivian went public in the largest IPO of 2021.
Delivery startup Gopuff laid off 10% of its staff, Insider reported in July.
"As a business, during these uncertain times, we owe it to our investors and customers to accelerate our timeline to profitability. As such, we have decided to confront the current moment by making difficult decisions about our core business," cofounders Rafael Ilishayev and Yakir Gola wrote in an email to employees.
The latest round of layoffs come after Gopuff cut 3% of its workforce, or more than 400 workers, in March.
Real estate firm Re/Max will lay off 17% of its workforce by the end of the year, the company announced.
The cuts will primarily affect employees in the technology division, the result of a "shift in strategy" as it partners with a third-party technology vendor, Re/Max said.
Microsoft announced in July that it was cutting a "small number" of employees across several groups, including consulting and customer and partner solutions, a company spokesperson told Bloomberg.
In June, JPMorgan confirmed that it would lay off over 1,000 employees in its home-lending department. The cuts came amid slowing demand for mortgages and refinances.
"Our staffing decision this week was a result of cyclical changes in the mortgage market," a JPMorgan spokesperson said in a statement to Insider at the time. "We were able to proactively move many impacted employees to new roles within the firm and are working to help the remaining affected employees find new employment within Chase and externally."
Netflix has seen 4 rounds of layoffs this year, totaling around 500 workers.
The company laid off around 450 people this summer - with one round of layoffs affecting 150 workers in May, and another round affecting 300 in June.
Before that, in April, the company laid off 25 marketing employees from its new fan site, Tudum.
Most recently, Netflix downsized its animation department, announcing it would lay off 30 employees.
The company may be seeing a turnaround in its financials, though. The streaming company reported losing 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter and nearly 1 million in the second. However, in mid-October, Netflix added 2.4 million subscribers, reversing its decline.
Real estate brokerage Compass cut about 10% of its workforce, or 450 employees, the company announced in a regulatory filing.
The cuts were part of a series of new cost-cutting measures that include pausing expansion, consolidating offices, and halting mergers and acquisitions, Bloomberg reported.
Ghost-kitchens company Reef Technology laid off 5% of its global workforce in May.
The SoftBank-backed startup cut about 750 employees as it worked toward profitability amid a challenging economic environment, CEO Ari Ojalvo wrote in a memo to staff obtained by Insider.
The layoffs come months after Reef said it would pause operations on some of its "underperforming" locations. Current and former employees told Insider that Reef had closed one-third of its kitchens and focused on its partnerships with major chains like Wendy's and Buffalo Wild Wings.
Starting in late 2021 and continuing through the first several months of 2022, mortgage startup Better.com laid off approximately 4,000 people.
The first wave started right before the holiday season in 2021, when CEO Vishal Garg laid off "hundreds" of people.
Garg told employees during a Zoom call that the company "lost $100 million last quarter," which he said, "was my mistake." He then said the layoffs shouldn't have happened right before the holiday, but, "three months ago."
Better followed up with another 3,000 layoffs in March, and began accepting voluntary layoffs in some departments.
In April, the weight-loss app maker Noom laid off hundreds of coaches, Insider reported — part of a bigger-picture pivot for the company toward more video-based coaching.
The company, through its app of the same name, pairs dieting with personal coaches to achieve weight loss for users. Interactions with those coaches were often through text, which users critiqued as "canned advice." Some coaches told Insider they were responsible for giving advice to hundreds of users at any given time.
Going forward, Noom said it would focus on offering users scheduled video calls with coaches.
Thrasio, the company known for creating the Amazon aggregator market, laid off an unknown number of people in May. Additionally, the company's CEO and founder, Carlos Cashman, stepped down from leadership.
In a memo sent to employees, Thrasio leadership said the layoffs were due to the company's "hypergrowth" in acquiring companies.
"At times we have been acquiring a new company almost every week," the memo said, "and running hard to build the infrastructure to support this growth."
Two sources told Insider at the time that the layoffs would impact up to 20% of Thrasio's staff.
As mortgage revenues fell at Wells Fargo in the first quarter of 2022, the company began laying off employees in mortgage-related positions, Insider reported in late April.
Loan processors and underwriters, among other positions, were reportedly affected by the layoffs. Wells Fargo representatives declined to say how many people were impacted by the cuts, but did confirm the layoffs in an emailed statement.
"We are carrying out displacements in a transparent and thoughtful manner and providing assistance, such as severance and career counseling. Additionally, we are committed to retaining as many employees as possible and will do everything we can to help them identify other opportunities within Wells Fargo," a Wells Fargo spokesperson said in a statement provided to Insider at the time.
One of the world's largest publicly traded cannabis companies, Canopy Growth, slashed 250 jobs in Canada earlier this year as it faces increasing competition in the burgeoning cannabis market.
Layoffs were among several cost-cutting measures that Canopy Growth is taking "to ensure the size and scale of our operations reflect current market realities and will support the long-term sustainability of our company," Canopy Growth CEO David Klein said in a statement at the time.
After raising $80 million from investing firm The Chernin Group last December, the content-creation team at food publication and retailer Food52 was suddenly laid off in early April.
About 20 of the company's 200 employees were let go in the layoffs, which came as a major surprise to those affected.
"Everyone on the team and my immediate boss were gut-punched," one of these employees told Insider. "We all had gotten raises and bonuses just a month prior."
Two of the employees who were laid off said Food52 executives told them the company was "pivoting to commerce," and away from the type of content that was created by the affected employees: recipes and other instructional cooking content.
Video app Cameo laid off 87 people in early May.
"Today has been a brutal day at the office," CEO Steven Galanis wrote on Twitter. "I made the painful decision to let go of 87 beloved members of the Cameo Fameo."
Galanis described the layoffs as a "course correction" in a statement to Variety. The cuts followed a staffing boom during the pandemic, when the company grew from around 100 employees before 2020 to about 400 in 2022.
In April, PayPal quietly laid off 83 people, according to a regulatory filing.
The company employed more than 30,000 people worldwide, over a third of whom are based in the US. The cuts appear to be tied to the company downsizing its presence in the San Francisco Bay Area, according to TechCrunch.
German grocery-delivery company Gorillas announced layoffs of "nearly 300" people around the world in May.
The layoffs, the company said, were part of a larger "shift to long-term profitability," which meant trimming staff as Gorillas focuses on its five "core" markets: Germany, France, the Netherlands, the UK, and the US.
Impacted employees, who were mostly corporate staff, were shocked by the sudden layoffs.
"It's not a secret that the company hasn't been doing well, but I didn't expect to wake up and lose my job," a Berlin-based employee who was laid off by Gorillas told Insider. "My managers weren't even aware or consulted. It's not the laying off that hurts, it's the way it's been done."
The Germany-based meal kit company announced it planned to close a Richmond, California, warehouse and eliminate 611 workers' roles by December 11.
HelloFresh saw a spike in sales early in the pandemic as more people were forced to cook at home, but sales have faded lately. The company's stock is down more than 70% so far this year — and meal kit rival Blue Apron has seen a similar plunge in its share price.
"The lease for HelloFresh's production facility in Richmond is expiring at the beginning of 2023 and after an extensive analysis of our production network, HelloFresh has decided not to extend the lease," a spokesperson said in a statement to Insider.
Shortly after HelloFresh announced layoffs, Blue Apron followed suit, with plans to cut 10% of its workforce in an effort "to both reduce expenses and streamline decision-making and organizational structure," the company said in a press release.
"As such, to create a more nimble, focused organization and to better align internal resources with strategic priorities, Blue Apron is streamlining its personnel this week," Blue Apron said in its Dec. 8 statement, noting the reductions will cost the company $1.2 million, namely in severance payments.
The meal-kit company has struggled against growing competition in the sector, as well as decreased demand for its products after a pandemic boom petered out as Americans resumed dining at restaurants.
Walmart announced layoffs in its corporate division, as well as at one of its fulfillment centers.
In mid-October, the retail giant filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN notice in Georgia, announcing its plans to let go of nearly 1,500 workers. The company said it plans to turn a fulfillment center in the Atlanta area to support third-party sellers for Walmart.
Earlier this year, the Wall Street Journal reported that Walmart planned to cut around 200 corporate jobs amid a company restructuring effort.
Walmart's sales growth — which exploded during the height of the pandemic — has leveled off recently. In the second quarter of 2022, Walmart's e-commerce sales grew by 12% year-over-year, compared to 97% growth in the second quarter of 2020.
The scope of Oracle's layoffs this year remains murky.
In July, Insider reported that Oracle's advertising division quietly had two rounds of layoffs, totaling a loss of 60 workers.
In August and October, Insider reported that Oracle held two rounds of layoffs that included the company's marketing, customer experience, and cloud divisions.
Insider estimates the August round of layoffs potentially affected thousands of jobs across the world.
What is clear is that the number of employees laid off is higher than the company has publicly let on. In an SEC filing, Oracle said it expects to incur $519 million in restructuring costs "primarily related to employee severance" through August 2023.
In September, Nordstrom filed a WARN notice in Iowa announcing that it planned to cut 222 employees at a distribution center in Cedar Rapids.
The layoffs were set to be completed by October 18, according to the filing.
Despite rising inflation, Nordstrom is still growing its bottom line. The company reported that its revenue grew by 12% year-over-year in the second quarter, and the company said it's focused on boosting e-commerce sales.
The embattled investment bank announced in late October that it plans to "radically restructure" and cut 5% of its headcount, or 2,700 workers.
The company said it plans to reduce its headcount by 9,000 workers in the next 3 years.
Credit Suisse has been hit with several catastrophes in recent years, including a $5 billion blow from the collapse of Archegos Capital Management last year.
VF Corp, which owns various retail brands like The North Face, Vans, and Supreme, confirmed to Insider it told employees about plans to lay off 300 employees and eliminate 300 open positions in early September.
VF Corp reported a 4% decline in revenue for its second quarter, attributing the slowdown to a covid-related disruption in China and broader macroeconomic headwinds.
Gannett, the largest newspaper chain in the US, reportedly laid off 3% of its US-based workforce or about 400 employees.
Poynter reported that CEO Mike Reed informed staff of the layoffs — as well as Gannett's plan to eliminate 400 open positions — at a companywide Q&A in August.
Poynter reports that the layoffs started one week after the company reported weak quarterly results. The company, which owns USA Today, along with local newspapers in 46 states, reported a net loss of nearly $54 million in the second quarter.
Ford plans to lay off roughly 3,000 salaried and contract workers as part of a restructuring and shifting focus toward producing electric vehicles.
The automaker has estimated that electric cars require 30% less labor than conventional vehicles.
Ben Gilbert contributed to an earlier version of this article.
United Furniture Industries, one of the largest furniture companies in the country, laid off 2,700 employees on Nov. 21.
The company cited "unforeseen business circumstances" in emails and texts sent to staffers overnight just a few days before Thanksgiving, according to local reports.
In a follow-up email, fired staffers were told "all benefits will be terminated immediately without provision of COBRA," leaving them without health insurance.
The terminations impacted "all employees" at the company's facilities in Verona, Mississippi; Victorville, California; and Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
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