HackerEarth, a tech-focused skilling and hiring startup, has laid off approximately 17 employees, representing over 8% of its workforce, which the company clarified totals 190 employees. This reduction, attributed to challenging macroeconomic conditions such as an economic downturn, funding crisis, and impending recession in the US market, was announced in February. CEO Sachin Gupta explained that after strong growth in 2020 and 2021, a hiring slowdown in late 2022 led to lower business growth than anticipated, necessitating these cuts for long-term sustainability. Alongside the layoffs, the company implemented organization-wide pay adjustments, with leadership taking the largest cuts, and provided severance packages including eight weeks of pay to impacted employees.
