While the massive layoffs of 2022 and 2023 have thankfully not been replicated in terms of numbers in 2024, this year has seen a fair amount of job losses across various industries, with the tech sector continuing to see some of the most high-profile announcements. In October, major tech companies, including Meta, Dropbox, and Tidal, cut jobs ahead of the holidays. And November so far is no different when it comes to major names cutting workers.
Here are some of the most prominent job cuts this month so far.
23andMe
This week, the DNA-testing announced it would be laying off around 40% of its staff, or about 200 employees. As Fast Company previously reported, 23andMe has been facing difficulties on many fronts, including the resignation of its board, a class action settlement as the result of a data breach, and a stock price that has sunk 98% since its public offering.
Advanced Micro Devices
Chipmaking giant AMD announced it would cut roughly 4% of its workforce or about 1,000 of its 26,000 employees. WccfTech reports that AMD confirmed the layoffs after news of the cuts spread on online message boards.
The layoffs came after AMD reported mixed Q3 results, which saw its revenue up 17% but guidance that fell short of investor expectations. While AMD has embraced an AI pipeline to meet the demand for chips that can run artificial intelligence, it has stiff competition from giants Nvidia and Intel.
Reached for comment, an AMD spokesperson sent the following statement: “As a part of aligning our resources with our largest growth opportunities, we are taking a number of targeted steps that will unfortunately result in reducing our global workforce by approximately 4%. We are committed to treating impacted employees with respect and helping them through this transition.”
iRobot Corporation
The Roomba robotic vacuum maker iRobot announced it would lay off approximately 105 employees, according to a Form 8-k filing with the U.S. Securities And Exchange Commission (SEC) on November 5. In the filing, it was said that layoffs represent about 16% of the company’s total global workforce.
IRobot said the layoffs were part of an “operational restructuring plan.” As TechCrunch notes, iRobot CEO Gary Cohen addressed the cuts during the company’s latest financial call.
“These moves, while challenging, have fundamentally changed the way we work with our partners to efficiently develop and build our robots,” said Cohen. “Our new operating model is able to deliver a significant increase in new product introductions with less than half the internal resources and approximately one-third the cost.”
Mozilla Foundation
The nonprofit division of the maker of the popular Firefox browser also slashed jobs in early November. Roughly 30% of the employees at the foundation were cut. TechCrunch said the Mozilla Foundation had roughly 120 employees before the cuts, meaning roughly 36 jobs were lost.
“The Mozilla Foundation is reorganizing teams to increase agility and impact as we accelerate our work to ensure a more open and equitable technical future for us all,” said Brandon Borrman, Mozilla’s VP of communications, in a statement to Fast Company. “That unfortunately means ending some of the work we have historically pursued and eliminating associated roles to bring more focus going forward. We’re not sharing a specific number, but it represents about 30% of the current team.”
Borrman added that, “We also want to clarify that the restructuring has not dropped advocacy; on the contrary, advocacy is still a central tenet of Mozilla Foundation’s work and we are in the process of revisiting our approach to it.”
The layoffs were not publicly reported until early November, but employees were reportedly told of them on October 30.
General Motors
Today, General Motors (GM) confirmed that it was laying off employees. Though the automaker did not state the total number of those cut, CNBC says the figure compromises roughly 1,000 employees. Persons familiar with the layoffs said that the job cuts were made in an effort to cut costs in changing market conditions. Most of the cuts will impact employees in Warren, Michigan, where GM’s global technical center is.
“In order to win in this competitive market, we need to optimize for speed and excellence. This includes operating with efficiency, ensuring we have the right team structure, and focusing on our top priorities as a business. As part of this continuous effort, we’ve made a small number of team reductions,” confirmed a GM spokesperson.
As of the end of 2023, GM employed 53,000 people in the United States.
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