North American tech giants are mired in layoffs.
According to informed sources, the U.S. networking equipment giant Cisco plans to carry out a second round of layoffs this year, with the number of layoffs being close to or slightly more than the 4,000 employees laid off in February of this year. The layoff plan may be announced when the fourth quarter financial report is released next Wednesday (14th), as a move to shift the company's resources and attention to high-growth areas such as network security and artificial intelligence (AI).
According to Cisco's annual report, as of July 2023, the company had about 84,900 employees, a number that does not include the layoffs in February of this year.
As a leader in the field of network routers and switches, Cisco faces the dual challenges of sluggish demand for its core business and supply chain tensions, which has prompted Cisco to adopt a diversification strategy. For example, in March of this year, it completed the acquisition of network security company Splunk for $28 billion. This acquisition will optimize the company's revenue structure by promoting its subscription business and reducing dependence on a one-time device sales model.
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In addition, Cisco is also committed to incorporating AI products into its product line and reiterated its goal in May of this year to achieve orders for AI products worth $1 billion by 2025. The company launched a $1 billion fund in June to invest in AI startups such as Cohere, Mistral AI, and Scale AI. Cisco said at the time that it has completed 20 acquisitions and investments with a focus on AI in the past few years.
This is the latest round of layoffs in the tech industry, which has been cutting expenses this year to offset huge investments in AI, including Intel and other tech companies that have announced layoffs. Intel announced in early August that it would lay off more than 15%, about 17,500 people, in an effort to restore profitability in its manufacturing business by reducing costs.
According to data from the tracking website Layoffs.fyi, more than 126,000 people have been laid off by 393 tech companies since the beginning of this year.Following last year's layoffs of thousands of employees, companies in the United States and Canada continued to cut jobs in 2024. Despite the waning concerns about an economic recession, the prospect of the Federal Reserve's interest rate cuts remains uncertain. Among them, the wave of layoffs continues to sweep through the technology industry, including giants such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, which have all laid off employees. Next, media companies, financial institutions, and retailers are also major players in layoffs.
Amazon's layoffs include less than 5% of employees in the Buy with Prime department, 5% of employees in the audiobook and podcast department Audible, hundreds of people in the streaming and studio operations department, 35% of employees in the streaming department Twitch, and hundreds of people in the healthcare departments One Medical and Amazon Pharmacy. The company also announced layoffs in the cloud services department AWS, involving hundreds of positions in sales, marketing, and global services departments, as well as hundreds of positions in the physical store technology team.
Google's parent company Alphabet's layoffs include dozens of people in the new technology development department X Lab, hundreds of people in the advertising sales team, including hundreds of people responsible for the hardware teams of Pixel, Nest, and Fitbit, and most of the employees of the AR team.
Microsoft laid off about 1900 people in the gaming departments Activision Blizzard and Xbox.
IBM plans to partially lay off in 2024, but will recruit more positions centered on artificial intelligence.
Intel previously stated that it will lay off more than 15%, about 17,500 people. This chip manufacturer is seeking to turn losses into profits and focus on its loss-making manufacturing business.
E-commerce company eBay plans to lay off about 1,000 people, accounting for about 9% of the total number of employees.
Video game software provider Unity software will lay off about 25%, or 1,800 jobs.
DocuSign plans to lay off about 6%, or 400 employees, mainly in the sales and marketing departments.
Snap plans to lay off about 528 people, accounting for 10% of its global employee total.Salesforce is set to lay off approximately 700 employees, which accounts for about 1% of its global workforce.
Internet giant Cisco is planning to restructure its business, which includes laying off thousands of employees.
Autonomous driving technology company Aurora Innovation is cutting its workforce by 3%.
Canadian BlackBerry Limited plans to make further layoffs on top of the approximately 200 people laid off in the last quarter.
Satellite radio company SiriusXM plans to lay off about 3% of its workforce, which is around 160 people.
Bumble is cutting 350 employees, which represents about 30% of its total workforce.
Electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla is laying off more than 10% of its global workforce. Amid an intensifying price war in the electric vehicle market, Tesla is striving to address the issue of declining sales.
Lucid has stated that it will cut 6% of its workforce, which is about 400 employees. The electric vehicle industry is currently grappling with the problem of slowing growth.
Payment company PayPal Holdings plans to lay off about 2,500 employees this year, which accounts for 9% of its global workforce.
Block has begun layoffs, with the specific scale of the layoffs being undisclosed.Citigroup plans to lay off 20,000 employees over the next two years. The company has announced plans to cut 716 jobs in New York to achieve this goal.
Sources reveal that investment banking giant Morgan Stanley plans to lay off hundreds of employees in its wealth management division, affecting less than 1% of the division's workforce.
Exchange operator Nasdaq plans to cut hundreds of jobs as it integrates financial technology company Adenza into its own operations.
Asset management firm BlackRock plans to lay off about 3% of its workforce, but expects the scale of layoffs to be larger by the end of 2024.
Defense stock Lockheed Martin plans to lay off 1% of its employees.
Spirit AeroSystems is laying off hundreds of employees in Wichita, Kansas. The company is affected by its main customer, Boeing, facing high debt and production slowdown issues.
U.S. defense contractor L3Harris cut 5% of its workforce in April this year to streamline operations and reduce costs.
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