It’s yet to materialize, as it joined other major players, including Unity and Amazon, in laying off workers just after the start of the year.
Recent companies to announce layoffs include:
Discord: The instant messaging and communication platform told employees this week that it would lay off 17% of its staff, or 170 people. In an internal memo obtained by The Verge and others, Discord CEO Jason Citron said the company has grown its workforce too quickly over the past few years, taking on more projects and becoming “less efficient in the way we operate.”
Audible: Amazon’s audiobook company announced it will lay off 5% of its workforce, or about 100 employees. “Leaner and more efficient is the way we must operate now and for the foreseeable future to continue delivering best-in-class audio storytelling to our customers,” Audible CEO Bob Carrigan said in an internal memo to employees. The layoffs follow layoffs at other Amazon properties, including Amazon Prime Video and Twitch, earlier this week, the Associated Press reported.
Google: The search giant is laying off hundreds of people working on the company’s Google Assistant product, Semafor reports, a product that took on a rather archaic look last year with the rise of productive AI chatbots like ChatGPT. The company also laid off hundreds of workers in its knowledge and information products teams.
Instagram: The Meta-owned company is eliminating the roles of approximately 60 employees at the popular image-sharing app, Business Insider reports. All employees are technical program managers. Instagram declined to comment.
Humane: The startup behind the upcoming AI Pin laid off 10 people before its product even launched.
Rent the Runway: The fashion rental company laid off 10% of its workforce this week, Fast Company’s Elizabeth Segran reports.
According to data compiled by Layoffs.fyi, the total number of tech workers laid off in the first 12 days of this year reached 5,586 across 35 companies. To put this in historical context, in 2023, 1,186 technology companies laid off a total of 262,682 workers, and in 2022, 1,064 technology companies laid off a total of 164,969 workers.