Salesforce could lay off more than 2,500 workers in coming weeks, according to a new report.
Anonymous sources (including “an industry source and a former employee”) told Protocol that the layoffs stem from a need to cut costs. Salesforce executives declined to comment.
Salesforce already cut as many as 1,000 employees this week, according to CNBC. “Our sales performance process drives accountability. Unfortunately, that can lead to some leaving the business, and we support them through their transition,” a Salesforce spokesperson told the network in a statement. (Meanwhile, Axios cited "several hundred workers" in its own layoff estimate.)
In late October, another Protocol report suggested Salesforce had laid off 90 workers, a small fraction of the company’s total 78,000 employees globally. “While limited hiring continues, most departments have reached their hiring goals for the fiscal year,” a company spokesperson told the publication at the time. “As a result, we have ended contracts with some temporary recruiting contractors.” The company reportedly put a hiring freeze into place through January 2023.
During its earnings reports earlier this year, Salesforce indicated that demand had slowed for its services among small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs). A dip in earnings and revenue, combined with growing fears of a recession, could lead to its executives looking for savings anywhere they can.
But Salesforce isn’t alone in enacting layoffs. Over the past two weeks, Twitter, Lyft, and Stripe collectively slashed thousands of jobs, and Meta may soon follow in their footsteps. With the exception of Twitter, which slashed roughly half its workforce as part of Elon Musk’s dramatic $44 billion acquisition of the platform, all of these companies have cited darkening economic conditions and the need to keep costs in check.
“We do need to match the pace of our investments with the realities around us. Doing right by our users and our shareholders (including you) means embracing reality as it is,” read Stripe’s explanation for cutting 14 percent of its workforce, posted on its official blog.
Despite those layoffs, the hiring environment remains strong for tech professionals. CompTIA’s latest analysis of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) pegs the tech unemployment rate at 2.2 percent, just a slight uptick from 2.1 percent in September.
