Understandably, this has many people worried. In June 2022, Insight Global found that 78% of American workers fear losing their jobs in the next recession. Additionally, 56% said they are not financially prepared and 54% said they would take a pay cut to avoid being laid off. In this infographic, we’ve visualized major layoffs announced in 2022 by US publicly traded companies. Note: Due to gaps in reporting, as well as the very large number of US companies, this list may not be complete.
An emerging trend
Redundancies have increased significantly since April this year. See the table below for high-profile cases of mass layoffs. CompanyIndustryLayoffs (#)Month PelotonConsumer Discretionary2,800February FunkoConsumer Discretionary258April RobinhoodFinancial Services~400April Nektar TherapeuticsBiotechnology500April CarvanaAutomotive2,500May DomaFinancial Services310May JP Morgan Chase & Co.Financial Services~500June TeslaAutomotive200June CoinbaseFinancial Services1,100June NetflixTechnology300June CVS HealthPharmaceutical208June StartTekTechnology472June FordAutomotive8,000July RivianAutomotive840July PelotonConsumer Discretionary2,000July LoanDepotFinancial Services2,000July InviteBiotechnology1,000July LyftTechnology60July MetaTechnology350July TwitterTechnologyJuly VimeoTechnology72July RobinhoodFinancial Services~795August Here’s a brief description of those layoffs, sorted by industry.
Car
Ford has announced its biggest round of layoffs this year, totaling about 8,000 employees. Many of those jobs involve Ford’s legacy internal combustion engine business. According to CEO Jim Farley, these cuts are necessary to finance the company’s transition to electric vehicles. We have absolutely too many people in some places, no doubt about it. – Jim Farley, CEO, Ford Speaking of electrics, Rivian laid off 840 employees in July, representing 6% of its total workforce. The EV startup pointed to inflation, rising interest rates and rising commodity prices as factors. The company’s most established rival, Tesla, cut 200 jobs from its Autopilot division last month. Last but not least is online used car retailer Carvana, which cut 2,500 jobs in May. The company experienced rapid growth during the pandemic, but has since fallen out of favor. Year-to-date, the company’s shares are down more than 80%.
Financial services
Fearing an impending recession, Coinbase laid off 1,100 employees, or 18% of its total workforce. Interestingly, Coinbase does not have a physical headquarters, meaning the entire company operates remotely. A recession could lead to another crypto winter, and it could last for a long time. In previous crypto winters, trading revenue has dropped significantly. Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase Around the same time, JPMorgan Chase & Co. announced it would lay off hundreds of home loan officers. While an exact number isn’t available, we’ve estimated it to be around 500 jobs, based on the original Bloomberg article. Wells Fargo, another major US bank, has also cut 197 jobs from its home mortgage division. The main reason for these cuts is rising mortgage rates, which negatively impact housing demand.
Technology
In tech, Meta and Twitter are two of the most high-profile companies to start making layoffs. In Meta’s case, 350 custodial employees have been laid off due to reduced use of the company’s offices. However, many more cuts are expected, as Facebook recently reported its first revenue decline in 10 years. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has made it clear he expects the company to do more with fewer resources, and managers have been encouraged to cite “underperformance” for “company failure.” Realistically, there are probably a lot of people at the company who shouldn’t be here.– Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Meta Also in July, Twitter laid off 30% of its talent acquisition team. The exact number was not available, but the group was estimated to have fewer than 100 employees. The company has also instituted a hiring freeze as it stumbles over a botched acquisition by Elon Musk.
More layoffs to come…
Layoffs are expected to continue through the rest of this year as metrics such as consumer sentiment enter a downturn. Rising interest rates, which make it more expensive for businesses to borrow money, also have a negative impact on growth. Indeed, just a few days ago, the trading platform Robinhood announced that it was laying off 23% of its staff. After taking into account its previous layoffs in April (9% of the workforce), it’s fair to estimate that this latest round will affect nearly 800 people.
