TECH

Job cuts widen as tech, biotech firms plan fresh rounds of layoffs

Tech and biotech companies have begun to reveal plans for multiple rounds of job cuts in the Bay Area, disquieting disclosures that suggest the current layoff surges will be ongoing.

The unsettling news came to light after Microsoft reported it would cut 62 jobs in Mountain View, layoffs that were effective on Feb. 9 and marked the second time the tech titan filed layoff notices with the state's labor agency.

Since July 2022, at least eight tech or biotech companies have notified the state Employment Development Department of plans for multiple layoff rounds.

Microsoft, Amazon, Intel, Twitter, Salesforce, PayPal, RingCentral and Zymergen have all filed WARN notices that reflect at least two distinct rounds of layoffs.

These eight companies all filed their notices with the state on or after Nov. 1, 2022. Six of the eight companies filed disclosures of planned job cuts this year, a review of the WARN notices shows.

Here are the number of employees the eight companies have decided to lay off in the Bay Area during at least two rounds of job cuts:

Salesforce, 1,010 in San Francisco

Twitter, 900 in San Francisco and San Jose

Amazon, 524 in Sunnyvale and San Francisco

PayPal, 378 in San Jose

Intel, 378 in Santa Clara

Microsoft, 107 in Mountain View and one in Santa Clara

RingCentral, 100 in Belmont

Zymergen, 293 in Emeryville

Seven of the companies filed two rounds of layoff notices with the state. Zymergen was the only one of the seven with more than two rounds. The biotech firm has filed four different sets of layoff letters, with the earliest in late July and the most recent in mid-January.

As of Feb. 9, these were the 10 most recent WARN notices that tech or biotech companies filed to disclose job cuts in the Bay Area. The list also shows the number of jobs affected in the most recent round of cutbacks:

Lam Research, 400 job cuts in Fremont and in Livermore

Mindspring Health Services, 128 layoffs in Menlo Park

Splunk, 174 staffing cuts in San Francisco and San Jose

Autodesk, 61 job cuts in San Francisco

Salesforce, 258 staffing cuts in San Francisco

NetApp, 148 layoffs in San Jose

Workday, 196 job cuts in Pleasanton

Pinterest, 49 staffing cuts in San Francisco

eBay, 185 layoffs in San Jose

Microsoft, 62 job cuts in Mountain View

Starting in mid-2022, tech and biotech companies have filed plans that cut at least 19,500 jobs in the Bay Area, with no indication that the job losses have begun to abate.

by George Avalos