Layoffs in United States

Cybersecurity firm Proofpoint is laying off 280 employees, representing about 6% of its global workforce of 4,500. The cuts, announced in late January 2024, include approximately 20 positions at its Israeli office, which employs around 300 people. The company, acquired by private equity firm Thoma Bravo in 2021, stated the layoffs are part of a strategic restructuring to align investments with priorities, streamline management, and leverage a global talent pool for long-term success. This move follows a series of acquisitions by Proofpoint in Israel, including Illusive in 2022.

Zuora representing approximately 8% of its workforce on 2024-01-31.

Technology publisher TechCrunch laid off approximately eight employees on Monday as part of a restructuring effort to refocus its coverage on Silicon Valley's investors, founders, and startups. The layoffs, representing a small portion of its total workforce, coincided with the decision to wind down its five-year-old paid subscription product, TC+. Editor-in-Chief Connie Loizos stated that operating two business models had diluted focus, leading to the strategic shift to strengthen its core news offering. This move highlights the ongoing challenges in the media industry as publishers streamline operations to prioritize sustainable coverage areas.

Aurora Solar, a software startup in the solar industry, laid off 20% of its workforce, affecting about 100 employees out of a total of approximately 500, on January 30, 2024. This decision came after the company reportedly missed its growth targets over the past year, attributed to broader macroeconomic challenges such as higher interest rates and regulatory changes like California's NEM 3.0, which reduced incentives for solar power. The layoffs follow a smaller round in November, reflecting ongoing adjustments in the face of shifting market dynamics and demand.

Health tech startup Noom conducted another round of layoffs on January 30, 2024, affecting employees including coaches and engineers. This follows a series of workforce reductions in recent years as the company, which operates a popular weight loss app, continues to restructure and streamline its operations. While the exact number of employees impacted in this latest round was not disclosed, the cuts are part of a broader trend of the company leaning more into operational efficiency. Noom operates in the competitive digital health and wellness industry.

Block, the fintech company led by CEO Jack Dorsey, laid off approximately 1,000 employees on January 30, 2024, as part of a broader effort to streamline operations. This reduction represents about 10% of its workforce, which the company aims to cap at around 12,000 employees, down from 13,000 late last year. Dorsey cited that the company's headcount had grown faster than its business, necessitating these cuts to achieve a leaner structure. The layoffs primarily affected teams at Cash App, Foundational, and Square, marking Block's second round of job cuts in recent months, following a smaller reduction at Tidal in December. This move aligns with a wider trend of workforce adjustments across the tech industry.

DispatchHealth laid off 88 employees on 2024-01-29.

iRobot, the maker of Roomba robot vacuums, is laying off approximately 350 employees, representing 31% of its workforce, following the collapse of its planned $1.7 billion acquisition by Amazon. The companies mutually terminated the deal in late January 2024 after determining there was no path to regulatory approval, particularly from the European Commission, which expressed antitrust concerns. In response to the failed deal and to stabilize its finances, iRobot also announced the immediate departure of its founder and CEO, Colin Angle, and will implement cost-cutting measures, including reducing R&D spending and pausing work on non-floorcare products like air purifiers and robotic lawn mowers. The layoffs and strategic shift mark a significant restructuring for the consumer robotics company.

Salesforce is laying off around 700 employees in its most recent tranche of job cuts, adding to previous layoffs announced last year, as part of restructuring efforts amid economic uncertainty and investments in AI.

Productboard, a San Francisco-based software startup valued at $1.7 billion in 2022, has initiated its third round of layoffs in less than two years, as reported in late January 2024. While the exact number of employees affected in this latest reduction is not specified, the company previously cut 20% of its workforce in November 2022 and another 10% in August 2023. At its peak in spring 2022, Productboard employed over 500 people. The layoffs reflect broader challenges in the tech industry, where many pandemic-era startups are prioritizing sustainability over growth amid a tough economic climate with high interest rates and scarce IPO opportunities. Backed by prominent investors like Tiger Global and Sequoia, Productboard serves over 5,400 customers, including major firms such as Microsoft and Zoom.

Flexport representing approximately 20% of its workforce on 2024-01-26.

Salesforce laid off 700 employees representing approximately 1% of its workforce on 2024-01-26.

Amperity laid off 20 employees on 2024-01-25.

Jamf representing approximately 6% of its workforce on 2024-01-25.

Business Insider representing approximately 8% of its workforce on 2024-01-25.

MVPindex laid off 12 employees representing approximately 30% of its workforce on 2024-01-25.

Microsoft is laying off approximately 1,900 employees from its gaming division, which includes teams at Activision Blizzard, Xbox, and ZeniMax. This reduction, announced in late January 2024, represents about 8% of the Microsoft Gaming workforce, which totals around 22,000 employees. The layoffs are part of a broader strategy to integrate the recently acquired Activision Blizzard and align on a sustainable cost structure, eliminating areas of overlap. In addition to the job cuts, Blizzard president Mike Ybarra has departed, and a planned Blizzard survival game has been canceled.

In January 2024, logistics technology and last-mile delivery startup Veho laid off approximately 65 corporate employees, representing 19% of its corporate headcount. The company, which had over 910 total employees at the time, stated the cuts were part of a reorganization to improve efficiency, accelerate its path to profitability, and redirect investment toward client needs and growth. This move came despite Veho reporting nearly 90% revenue growth in 2023, following a period of rapid expansion and significant venture capital backing that had previously propelled it to a $1.5 billion valuation.

In January 2024, autonomous vehicle technology company Aurora Innovation laid off about 3% of its workforce, affecting dozens of employees. This followed an organizational review as the Pittsburgh-based firm, which employed roughly 1,800 people at the end of 2023, strives to streamline operations ahead of its planned commercial launch. Aurora is pushing to deploy up to 20 driverless trucks by the end of 2024, focusing initially on the Dallas-Houston freight route, while collaborating with Continental on mass-producing autonomous hardware. The layoffs reflect ongoing economic pressures and the high costs of developing safe self-driving technology, a challenge that has led to industry consolidation. Aurora, founded by veterans of Tesla, Uber, and Waymo, went public in 2021 to fund its ambitious goals in the competitive autonomous transportation sector.

HubSpot, a leading customer relationship management (CRM) software company, laid off approximately 20 content designers, as announced in a LinkedIn post. While the exact percentage of total employees affected is not specified, the layoffs represent a significant loss of specialized talent within the company's design and content teams. The post, shared by a former colleague, highlights the impacted individuals' expertise in product strategy, information architecture, and scalable content design, emphasizing their deep customer impact and collaborative skills. This move appears part of broader industry adjustments, though a specific reason for these layoffs at HubSpot was not detailed. The company operates in the competitive SaaS and marketing technology industry, serving a global customer base.

Desktop Metal representing approximately 20% of its workforce on 2024-01-24.

Riot Games is laying off about 530 employees, representing 11% of its workforce, as announced on Monday. The company is also sunsetting its publishing group Riot Forge and reducing the team for Legends of Runeterra, citing organizational changes and performance issues.

Fintech startup Brex, valued at $12.3 billion in 2022, laid off 282 employees, representing about 20% of its workforce, on January 23, 2024. This significant staff reduction, affecting roughly 1,300 employees prior to the cuts, is attributed to stalled growth and a high cash burn rate, reportedly $17 million per month in late 2023. The company is restructuring its operations and compensation model to emphasize long-term ownership and financial sustainability. This marks the second major layoff for Brex, following an 11% reduction in October 2022. Concurrently, the company announced executive changes, including the COO transitioning to a board role.

American used-vehicle e-commerce company Vroom is laying off approximately 800 employees, representing about 90% of its total workforce, as part of a drastic restructuring announced on January 23, 2024. The company is discontinuing its online sales platform and winding down its used vehicle dealership business entirely. This decision follows a severe decline from its peak valuation of over $8 billion in 2020 to a market capitalization of just $75 million. Vroom will retain its automotive finance and AI analytics subsidiaries but will halt all vehicle purchases and sell off existing inventory through wholesale channels, effectively ending its core e-commerce operations in the competitive online used car market.

GoTo laid off 29 employees on 2024-01-23.

Riot Games laid off 530 employees representing approximately 11% of its workforce on 2024-01-22.

2U on 2024-01-22.

Google on 2024-01-22.

Stitch Fix, the online personal styling service, is eliminating all full-time positions for its stylists and laying off 10 styling leaders as part of a broader cost-cutting effort. This shift to a fully part-time model, effective March 31, 2024, impacts about a quarter of its roughly 2,620 stylists who were previously full-time. The move comes as the apparel e-commerce retailer faces persistent challenges, including seven consecutive quarters of declining sales and a shrinking active client base. Despite making progress on reducing losses, the company is restructuring its styling workforce to further control expenses in a competitive retail industry.

B2B fashion startup Fashinza has laid off half of its workforce amid significant struggles to find a sustainable business model. The company, which operates in the fashion and manufacturing industry, has seen its gross merchandise value decline from $50 million to $40 million and stagnate over the past 18 months. This downsizing, part of broader organizational restructuring, comes as Fashinza has cycled through three different business models in just three years and faced a series of high-level executive departures. The layoffs, reported in early 2024, were implemented to reduce cash burn, which has been lowered from a peak of about Rs 8-9 crore monthly to around Rs 2.5 crore.

Amazon has laid off approximately 30 employees from its Buy with Prime division, affecting fewer than 5% of the unit's staff, as part of ongoing cost-cutting measures. This follows recent job reductions in other divisions like Prime Video, MGM Studios, Twitch, and Audible, continuing a series of layoffs that began in late 2022 and have totaled over 27,000 positions company-wide. Despite the cuts, Amazon states that Buy with Prime remains a priority and will continue to receive significant investment. The tech giant is assisting affected employees in finding new internal roles and providing pay, benefits, and severance packages.

In January 2024, YouTube, the video-sharing platform owned by Google, announced layoffs affecting 100 employees. This move was part of a broader restructuring effort within Google to streamline operations and reallocate resources toward key product priorities. The cuts specifically targeted YouTube's creator management and operations teams. While impacted staff were given the opportunity to apply for other roles within the company, the layoffs reflect ongoing organizational changes across the tech industry. This event occurred amidst a series of job reductions at Google and other major tech firms in the early weeks of the year.

Google, a major tech company, is laying off several hundred employees from its advertising-sales team as part of a restructuring effort. The cuts, announced in January 2024, primarily affect the large-customer-sales unit, which serves bigger advertising clients. This move aligns with a shift in focus toward the Google customer-solutions team that handles medium-level clients, as larger clients now require fewer dedicated resources. The layoffs reflect ongoing changes in how Google's sales operations are organized, though the company states they are unrelated to its AI automation tools. While the exact percentage of total employees impacted isn't specified, the reductions number in the hundreds globally within the advertising division.

SonderMind, a mental health tech unicorn startup, laid off 17% of its workforce in January 2024. The company, which matches patients with local therapists, reduced staff as part of broader adjustments in the health tech industry. While the exact number of affected employees wasn't specified, the percentage indicates a significant restructuring for the company, reflecting ongoing challenges in the sector.

First Mode laid off 48 employees representing approximately 20% of its workforce on 2024-01-16.

Vendr on 2024-01-12.

Instagram has cut 60 technical program manager positions, eliminating a layer of management as part of a reorganization to focus on new areas like Creation, Creators, and Friend Sharing, aligning with Meta's 'Year of Efficiency' initiative.

Hologram, a company in the IoT connectivity industry, conducted layoffs affecting over 30 employees, as announced in a LinkedIn post. The cuts impacted various departments including sales, product, design, customer success, and marketing. While the exact percentage of the workforce and total employee count were not specified, the layoffs were described as a response to challenging market conditions, with the post noting "a brutal market for us." The event occurred on a Friday, with the announcement made in early 2023. Hologram operates as a SaaS startup providing cellular connectivity for IoT devices, indicating it is a venture-backed, growth-stage company. The layoffs resulted in the departure of key personnel, such as the Head of Product and Design and a Sales Director, who had contributed significantly to the company's recent performance.

Despite achieving record market share and profitability in 2023, data protection company Veeam laid off approximately 300 employees in January 2024 as part of an organizational restructure. This follows a previous layoff of 200 staff in March 2023. With a total workforce of over 5,000 employees, this latest reduction impacts a significant portion of its staff. The company, a major player in backup and ransomware protection with over 450,000 customers, stated the move was to prioritize investments and transition roles, while also ramping up hiring in other areas. The context suggests cost-trimming efforts may be related to preparing for a potential future IPO.

Artifact, the news aggregation and social networking startup founded by Instagram's co-founders, is shutting down in early 2024, resulting in the layoff of its entire team. The company, which had scaled to a small team, decided to wind down operations after determining the market opportunity was insufficient to justify continued investment. Despite pivoting from a simple news reader to a more social, creator-focused platform with AI-powered features, it faced intense competition in a crowded space, including from Meta's Threads. Core news functions will remain available until the end of February, allowing users time to transition. This closure reflects broader challenges in the news aggregation and social media industry, where shifting user behaviors and the rise of AI are reshaping the landscape.

Google laid off over 1,000 employees across multiple divisions, including voice-activated Google Assistant and hardware teams managing Pixel, Nest, and Fitbit, as part of organizational changes to become more efficient and align resources with product priorities. The layoffs were announced on January 11, 2024, and the company had 182,000 employees as of September 30, 2023. Fitbit co-founders also left as part of this restructuring.

Chief on 2024-01-11.

Cloudflare, a major internet infrastructure and cybersecurity company, laid off approximately 40 employees in late 2024. This represented a small fraction of its global workforce, which numbered over 3,800 at the time. The decision was part of a strategic restructuring to streamline operations and reallocate resources toward its highest-priority product areas, particularly artificial intelligence and security. The move reflects ongoing adjustments within the competitive tech industry as companies focus on core growth initiatives.

Audible, the Amazon-owned audiobook and podcast service, laid off just over 100 employees, representing about 5% of its workforce, in January 2024. This move is part of broader cost-cutting efforts across Amazon, impacting divisions like Prime Video and Twitch. CEO Bob Carrigan explained the decision was necessary to become leaner and more efficient amid a challenging business landscape, aiming to ensure long-term success despite the company having a strong 2023. The layoffs did not affect content teams.

Business intelligence unicorn Sisense has laid off approximately 60 employees, representing about 13% of its remaining workforce, in its second round of job cuts within six months. This follows a previous layoff of 100 employees in July 2023. Since 2022, the company's total headcount has been halved from around 800 to about 400 employees. The layoffs, announced in January 2024, are part of a broader restructuring that has included executive departures, a hiring freeze, and several shifts in business strategy, including a renewed focus on integrating analytics tools into other enterprise software. Despite reporting $150 million in annual recurring revenue, the established AI and data analytics firm continues to streamline operations amid market challenges.

Audible, an Amazon-owned audiobook company, announced layoffs affecting 5% of its staff on January 11, 2024, as revealed in a leaked memo from CEO Bob Carrigan. The decision was attributed to an 'increasingly challenging landscape,' despite the company having a strong performance in 2023. This move is part of broader workforce reductions at Amazon, which has seen significant layoffs across its subsidiaries, including Twitch, MGM Studios, and Prime Video, as the tech giant restructures its entertainment divisions amid ongoing cost-cutting efforts in the industry.

Discord, the popular messaging and community platform, is laying off 170 employees, which represents 17 percent of its workforce. The cuts, announced on January 11, 2024, are the company's largest to date and follow a previous reduction of 4 percent in August 2023. In an internal memo, CEO Jason Citron stated that the layoffs are intended to sharpen the company's focus and improve operational agility. He admitted that Discord expanded its headcount too rapidly, growing fivefold since 2020, which led to inefficiency. While not in dire financial straits, the company has yet to achieve profitability and is working to revive user growth after a pandemic surge. This move is part of a broader trend of workforce reductions across the tech industry.

Certinia on 2024-01-11.

Dextrous Robotics representing approximately 100% of its workforce on 2024-01-11.

FreshDirect, the New York City-based online grocery service, has laid off more than 100 employees, representing 3.5% of its workforce of over 3,000, as part of a corporate restructuring. This move comes two months after its parent company, Ahold Delhaize USA, announced the sale of FreshDirect to rapid delivery firm Getir. The company stated the restructuring is necessary for long-term sustainability, affecting various divisions including talent acquisition, transportation, and IT. As one of the U.S.'s pioneering online grocers, FreshDirect has faced challenges expanding beyond its core tri-state region, leading to this strategic shift in early 2024.