Companies across the board have reduced their headcount as a result of the global slowdown and impending recession. Over 60 top companies announced layoffs in August 2022 alone, according to GlobalData’s news database.
From Microsoft to Apple to Tencent to Xiaomi to Snap, the big tech behemoths laid off workers as the companies’ financial books were threatened by uncertain macroeconomic conditions.
Experts, on the other hand, believe that the worst is yet to come. Sherla Sriprada, the business fundamentals analyst at GlobalData, which published the report, cited Microsoft as an example of a company that was planning future cuts. Microsoft is particularly interesting, as it laid off 1% of its total workforce due to the economic slowdown and plans to lay off another 200 employees from its consumer research and development (R&D) team as part of its realignment. The company’s job postings fell by 47% in August 2022 compared to January 2022. Here is a list of the top companies that have laid off their employees.
TikTok
TikTok is a platform for short-form video hosting owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. TikTok has experienced meteoric growth in India and worldwide due to its viral, short-form content, prompting several countries to complain and ban TikTok. TikTok is still growing, with eight new users joining every second. As of July 2022, it had over 1 billion monthly active users.
TikTok, the popular and contentious ByteDance subsidiary, is reportedly starting to reduce its workforce by laying off employees in the EU, EK, and US. According to Wired and other news and media outlets, these layoffs could affect 100+ TikTok employees, which currently employs around 10,000 people worldwide. The TikTok layoffs are in line with the company’s global restructuring initiatives.
Walmart
Walmart Inc., the well-known American retail multinational corporation, has announced the layoff of hundreds of corporate employees. Walmart announced at its Arkansas headquarters on August 3, 2022, that it would be laying off nearly 200 employees. Merchandising, real estate, and global technology are just a few of the departments that would have to bear the brunt of the burden.
Amazon
The well-known American retail multinational corporation, Walmart Inc., has laid off hundreds of corporate employees. On August 3, 2022, at its Arkansas headquarters, Walmart announced the layoff of nearly 200 employees. Merchandising, real estate, and global technology are just a few of the departments that would be hit hardest.
Twitter is an American social networking platform created by Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, Evan Williams, and Noah Glass on March 21, 2006. Twitter is one of the largest social media platforms that has been all over the news concerning one of the largest acquisitions in modern times ($44 billion), led by billionaire techie Elon Musk, who eventually backed off from the same and was sued as a result of it. Amid the Elon Musk-Twitter acquisition deal and the impending legal battle, Twitter announced that it would be laying off 30% of its recruiting team. According to a WSJ report dated July 7, 2022, the company employs over 7000 people and will lay off approximately 100 employees.