Anheuser-Busch—the maker of Stella Artois, Budweiser and Bud Light—announced plans this week to cut hundreds of employees, amid slumping sales following right-wing blowback from its partnership with transgender social media star Dylan Mulvaney, making the brewing giant the latest U.S. company to conduct layoffs as recession fears push employers to make cuts (see Forbes’ layoff tracker from the first quarter here).
Anheuser-Busch parent company AB InBev’s cuts affect less than 2% of the company’s 18,000 U.S. employees (roughly 360 positions), as Bud Light and Budweiser sales tank following the Mulvaney partnership, and as Modelo Especial overtakes Bud Light as America’s highest selling beer.
Christopher Viehbacher, the CEO of Cambridge, Massachusetts, biotech company Biogen, announced the layoffs—affecting roughly 1,000 of its 8,750 employees—in a quarterly earnings report on Tuesday, in an effort to reduce the company’s annual operating expenses by $1 billion by 2025, as part of a larger plan to “invest less in other areas which are no longer growing.”
FibroGen, a startup that develops cancer and anemia treatments, announced plans in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing to slash 32% of its staff, affecting 104 employees, telling SFGATE the cuts affect its U.S. employees and will take effect through the first three months of 2024.
Microsoft reduced its head count by 1,000 jobs over the past week, mostly in sales and customer services, anonymous sources told Insider—the Seattle Times reported a round of layoffs at Microsoft last week affecting 276 employees in the Seattle area, while the tech giant last month cut another 158 employees from its Redmond, Washington, headquarters (a Microsoft spokesperson told Forbes last week the cuts are “a necessary and regular part of managing our business”).
Allina Health, a non-profit healthcare organization that runs more than 100 hospitals and clinics in Minnesota and Wisconsin, told multiple outlets it would cut less than 350 employees “throughout the organization” amid “unprecedented financial challenges,” including leadership and non-caregiving roles (Forbes has reached out for confirmation).
Cryptocurrency exchange Binance cut more than 1,000 employees in recent weeks, a person familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal, which Pitchbook estimates to represent roughly one-eighth of its total workforce—a Binance spokesperson told Forbes it has “become clear” to the company that it “need[s] to focus on talent density across the organization to ensure we remain nimble and dynamic” as it prepares for the “next major bull cycle.”
Wells Fargo announced plans to the cut just over 100 employees in a Florida WARN notice, with layoffs affecting positions in the state—the bank’s latest cuts after it slashed more than 100 employees in two rounds of layoffs in September, multiple outlets reported.
Walgreens will cut up to 400 employees and plans to shut down an e-commerce distribution center in Illinois, one month after the pharmacy chain said it would cut more than 500 corporate jobs in Illinois as the company looks to “transform our business into a consumer-centric healthcare company.”
CEO John Hanke said in an internal memo the cuts at Niantic, the maker of Pokemon GO, will affect 230 of the California-based company’s employees as it closes its Los Angeles studio, adding the company has “allowed our expenses to grow faster than revenue,” after a boom in business during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Retailer The Children’s Place announced plans in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing to cut 181 positions (17% of its salaried staff), with most of the cuts affecting employees at its Secaucus, New Jersey, headquarters, as the company transitions to a “digital-first” model.
Layoffs at Ford could affect as many as 1,000 employees and are expected to target the automaker’s software division, as well as gas-powered and electric vehicle manufacturing, sources familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal—a Ford spokesperson, however, told Forbes last week the company had “nothing to announce,” and is aligning staffing around “skills and expertise,” including by hiring “in key areas.”
New Relic CEO Bill Staples announced the layoffs—affecting 155 U.S. employees and another 57 internationally—in a statement, arguing the San Francisco-based cloud-based software company made cuts now “to hasten the arrival of our future, especially in light of current economic uncertainty.”
Robinhood’s layoffs are expected to affect 150 employees, according to an internal memo obtained by the Wall Street Journal—the brokerage’s third round of cuts since the start of 2022, including one round last August affecting nearly a quarter of Robinhood’s staff.
Job cuts at KPMG are expected to affect more than 1,900 of the accounting firm’s U.S. employees, marking its second major round of layoffs this year following the release of roughly 700 employees in February, amid a slew of layoffs including at big four accounting firms Ernst & Young and Deloitte.
Goldman Sachs’ cuts will include managing directors in its investment banking division, sources told Bloomberg, just under a month after the Wall Street Journal reported the banking giant was planning a round of cuts affecting under 250 employees and just over five months after the firm laid off nearly 4,000 employees amid a wave of large corporate layoffs affecting big national banks.
Ride share giant Uber cut roughly 200 employees, estimated to represent 35% of its recruiting team but less than 1% of its more than 32,000 employees worldwide, though company officials informed employees in an internal memo obtained by the Wall Street Journal the company plans to keep its headcount flat through the end of the year.
Oracle’s layoffs were reportedly centered in its Oracle Health division, including at IT provider Cerner, which it acquired for $28 billion last year—Oracle had also cut more than 200 employees in October, and started laying off an undisclosed number of its estimated 143,000 employees last summer (Forbes has reached out to Oracle for confirmation).
Phoenix-based Nikola Corporation said it has cut 120 employees based in Arizona and another 150 across “multiple sites” supporting the company’s programs in Europe, as part of a reorganization plan intended to save more than $50 million per year and as the company looks to consolidate its operations.
Sonos, the maker of wireless multi-room sound systems, announced its layoffs in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, saying the cuts will affect roughly 130 employees (7% of its workforce ) and the company will re-evaluate its spending and real estate footprint, as it faces “continued headwinds.”
Nearly 230 employees laid off at Tyson Foods had been working at two of the company’s Illinois offices and rejected the company’s request in October to relocate to Arkansas —Tyson had cut another 15% of senior leadership positions and 10% of its roughly 6,000 corporate jobs in April, according to regulatory filings, and announced plans in March to shut two plants in Arkansas and Virginia and cut roughly 1,600 employees.
Grubhub’s cuts will affect roughly 400 of the company’s 2,800 employees, CEO Howard Migdal—just three months into his role—said in an internal memo, citing high staffing and operating costs that have grown “at a higher rate” than its overall business since pre-Covid levels.
Spotify Vice President Sahar Elhabashi announced in a notice to employees the audio streaming giant will cut 200 employees (2% of its workforce) as part of a “strategic realignment,” sending its stock up nearly 0.6% to $152.60—the streaming service previously cut another 6% of its staff (600 positions) in January.
Haven Technologies, the MassMutual-owned insurance software company, will cut roughly 280 employees in a massive round of cuts affecting roughly 70% of the company’s workforce, telling Forbes the cuts are part of a reorganization plan to leave Haven Technologies “best positioned to create the flexible and customer-centric technologies that will enable our clients to help expand access to insurance.”
ZipRecruiter announced in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing the company will cut its workforce by 270 employees (20% of its staff), in response to “current market conditions and after reducing other discretionary expenses.”
Zendesk CEO Tom Eggemeier told employees the San-Francisco-based company is cutting its workforce by 8%, affecting just over 500 of its nearly 6,400 employees, according to PitchBook, after hiring “outpaced our business realities” amid “macroeconomic conditions have not improved.”
JPMorgan Chase will provide transitionary and full-time positions for roughly 7,000 First Republic employees but cut its remaining workforce of roughly 1,000, with a spokesperson telling Forbes the “vast majority of First Republic employees” will be given jobs at the bank.
First Citizens chairman and CEO Frank Holding Jr. told employees in an email obtained by Axios that the layoffs were the result of Silicon Valley Bank’s epic failure in March, which made it “increasingly clear that we must make decisions to rightsize our scope and scale to remain competitive.”
Meta informed roughly 6,000 employees they had been let go, CNBC reported, following a previous batch of layoffs affecting about 4,000 employees last month—the cuts are part of the social media giant’s plans to slash 10,000 of its nearly 87,000 employees during its so-called year of efficiency and bring Meta’s total layoffs since November to 21,000.
Abbott Laboratories is cutting 200 jobs, it announced in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notice, will bring the manufacturer’s total layoffs at its Westbrook, Maine, facility to over 800, as it continues to “adjust our workforce to align with market conditions” as demand for Covid tests dwindles, local ABC affiliate WMTW reported.
Disney will reportedly lay off another 2,500 employees, just over a month after its latest wave of layoffs—bringing its total number of job cuts this year to roughly 6,500 as part of the company’s plan to slash 7,000 positions, after Iger called the cuts a “necessary step to address the challenges we face today,” in a conference call last month.
TuSimple’s cuts affect 30% of its global workforce, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, and comes less than half a year after the San Diego-based autonomous truck developer slashed a quarter of its workforce, citing “current market conditions” as the reason for the layoffs.
Austin, Texas-based tech company Accenture PLC will slash nearly 550 positions, according to a WARN notice, cutting its workforce of roughly 5,900 by nearly 10%, the Austin American-Statesman reported.
USAA, the United Services Automobile Association, will cut 300 positions across “most of our offices and different functions,” a company spokesperson confirmed to Forbes, bringing the Texas-based automotive insurance company’s layoffs this year to nearly 800, as it “continues to make necessary adjustments to run a healthy business.”
Nuro, which had laid off 300 employees in November, will cut another 340 (roughly 30% of its workforce), TechCrunch reported, as the company’s cofounders, Dave Ferguson and Jiajun Zhu, warn that recent bank failures and recession fears have put a damper on funding and as the company embraces AI advances.
Louisiana-based Ochsner Health will cut 770 employees in both Louisiana and Mississippi (roughly 2% of its workforce), CEO Pete November announced in an email to employees, citing high inflation, increasing costs of labor and the end of Covid-era government relief funding.
Tom Leighton, the CEO of Boston-area internet company Akamai Technologies, announced plans in a call with analysts to lay off roughly 3% of the company’s nearly 10,000 employees, or 300 staff members, the Boston Globe reported.
San Francisco-based Twist Bioscience will slash 25% of its workforce (estimated to affect 270 employees), the San Francisco Business Journal reported.
Paramount Media Networks and Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios, the media divisions behind MTV, Showtime, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and streaming service Paramount+, unveiled plans to cut 25% of its staff and shut down MTV News as the company contends with “pressure from broader economic headwinds like many of our peers.”
In a financial report, Maryland-based pharmaceutical company Novavax announced it will cut one quarter of its workforce (estimated to affect nearly 500 of its just under 2,000 employees), as demand for Covid vaccines wanes, with CEO John Jacobs calling the decision “necessary to better align our infrastructure and scale to the endemic Covid opportunity.”
Microsoft-owned LinkedIn plans to slash 716 of its roughly 20,000 positions, CEO Ryan Roslansky announced in a statement, amid faltering demand, “shifts in customer behavior” and a “rapidly changing landscape.”
Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke unveiled the layoffs—as well as a plan to sell its logistics arm to tech company Flexport—in a memo to employees, saying the company is adjusting to the “dawn of the AI era” and that it has the “best chances of using AI to help our customers” (layoffs are estimated to affect more than 2,300 of Shopify’s roughly 11,600 employees, according to PitchBook, after the company laid off another 10% of its workforce last July).
Unity Software will reduce its staff by roughly 8% and restructure “specific” internal teams, the San Francisco-based tech company announced in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, saying the restructuring plan will cost the company $26 million but position it for “long-term and profitable growth.”
Morgan Stanley’s cuts will reportedly affect more than 3.6% of its 82,000 employees and primarily impact banking and trading positions, multiple outlets reported, citing sources familiar with the matter, after financial filings revealed the company’s total revenue dropped by 2% to $14.5 billion over the 12-month period ending March 31, and just six months after it reportedly cut another 1,600 employees (Forbes has reached out to Morgan Stanley for confirmation).
Rideshare company Lyft unveiled plans to slash nearly 1,100 positions in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, just weeks after confirming a round of layoffs in a blog post and nearly six months after 700 people were laid off from the company.
Vice Media’s layoffs could affect more than 100 of the outlet’s roughly 1,500 employees, sources familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal—making it the latest media outlet to conduct cuts, along with BuzzFeed News, ESPN, Insider Inc. and NPR.
Gap will cut roughly 1,800 corporate employees, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, as part of a restructuring plan that will cost the company between $100 million and $120 million, following an initial round of job cuts in September that affected more than 500 corporate positions.
Dropbox’s layoffs will affect roughly 16% of the San Francisco-based tech giant’s staff, the company announced in an SEC filing, citing slow growth, economic downturn and as the company embraces the “AI era,” which CEO Drew Houston believes will “completely transform knowledge work.”
3M, the manufacturing giant known for its Post-It Notes and Scotch tape, announced it was cutting 6,000 manufacturing jobs in an effort to cut annual costs by as much as $900 million, just months after the company cut 2,500 positions in January, 3M said in a statement.
Red Hat, a Raleigh, North Carolina-based software manufacturer, started cutting 4% of its workforce, multiple outlets reported, with cuts estimated to affect roughly 760 of its 19,000 employees, according to PitchBook. (Forbes has reached out to Red Hat for confirmation.)
Deloitte will cut 1,200 of its more than 156,000 jobs in its U.S. workforce, the Financial Times reported, citing internal employee communications. (Deloitte did not immediately respond to a Forbes inquiry for confirmation.)
Whole Foods plans to cut several hundred corporate jobs, the Wall Street Journal reported an internal memo as showing, as the company aims to simplify operations and restructure some of its corporate teams, but it will not close any facilities or stores. (Whole Foods did not immediately respond to a Forbes inquiry for confirmation.)
Opendoor will cut 560 employees, roughly 22% of its workforce, in its latest round of cuts, after the online real estate company slashed another 18% of its staff in November, telling Forbes the company has suffered from high mortgage rates and has been “weathering a sharp transition in the housing market,” with a 30% decline in new listings from last year.
Accounting firm Ernst & Young is cutting roughly 3,000 employees based in the U.S.—less than 5% of its U.S. workforce and less than 1% of its more than 358,000 employees worldwide, according to PitchBook—over concerns with the “impact of current economic conditions, strong employee retention rates and overcapacity.” (Ernst & Young did not immediately respond to a Forbes inquiry for confirmation.)
David’s Bridal laid off 9,236 positions across the United States, according to a notice filed to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor, the state where the company is headquartered, with the company’s CEO, James Marcum, saying the recent uncertain economic conditions and the post-Covid environment led to company’s choice to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and lay off a majority of their employees.
The extent of Best Buy’s layoffs is not yet clear, though sources told the Wall Street Journal the big box tech and appliance retailer informed hundreds of employees who had sold smartphones and computers at more than 900 U.S. stores that their positions had been eliminated.
Redfin cut 200 employees “due to the housing downturn and economic uncertainty,” the Seattle-based company confirmed to Forbes, following two rounds of layoffs over the past year, including one in November affecting 862 employees. (Redfin has more than 5,500 employees, according to PitchBook.)
Walmart, the biggest employer in the country, laid off more than 2,000 employees at five plants, including in Florida, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Texas, just weeks after reportedly asking roughly 200 workers to look for other jobs at other company sites last month as part of an adjustment in staffing “to better prepare for the future needs of customers.”
McDonald’s plans to cut “hundreds” of employees in a restructuring plan, Reuters reported, citing unnamed sources, after the fast-food giant closed its corporate offices for part of the week in order to conduct the layoffs—McDonald’s, which has 150,000 global employees, according to PitchBook, did not respond to a Forbes inquiry.
Hyland Software, the developer behind process management software OnBase, announced plans to cut 1,000 employees—roughly a fifth of its workforce—and reassess job responsibilities, as CEO Bill Priemer said the Ohio tech company “did not anticipate the degree to which inflation, rising interest rates and wage increases would impact our expenses.”
136,000. That’s how many employees were cut in major U.S. layoffs over the first three months of 2023—more than the previous two fiscal quarters combined, led by massive head count reductions at Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft, according to Forbes’ tracker.
Despite massive layoffs continuing at many large companies over the first few months of 2023, the U.S. labor market still managed to add 236,000 jobs in the month of March while the unemployment rate dropped to 3.5% from 3.6% in February, according to Labor Department data—though it was the smallest increase in total employment since December 2020, sparking fears among economists that a recession could be under way.
Large U.S. companies ranging from tech startups to manufacturers, retailers and banks conducted a series of major layoffs last summer—with nearly 125,000 U.S. employees affected by cuts at more than 120 large U.S. companies between June and December, according to Forbes’ tracker. Employers feared high inflation and multiple rounds of interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve could throw the economy into recession. Nearly half of those cuts came in the months of November and December, led by massive reductions at Amazon, which cut 10,000 employees, and Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta, which cut 11,000 employees. Amazon and Meta both unveiled new rounds of cuts in March.
