Athena Hallet
Sadly due to the economic state of our world today, many employees live in fear of losing their jobs, especially because many corporate companies have been announcing mass layoffs. These widespread layoffs across a variety of industries, shines a light on the many layers of economic challenges, and market changes. It’s clear that there has been a massive shift in the global business industry as a whole, giving good reason for those to be concerned about their livelihood. Here are 18 companies that have announced widespread layoffs in 2024.
Macy’s
The iconic department store Macy’s chain is undergoing an operational overhaul. The company has recently informed the masses that it has plans to lay off 2,350 employees, making up 3.5% of its workforce.
These efforts are partially due to the bigger picture with the current retail market and to streamline their operations. This move that Macy’s is making just shows the shifts that the retail industry as a whole is making. Adapting to the current consumer behavior and competitive landscape.
BlackRock
Even the world’s largest asset manager isn’t exempt from the changing of the tides. BlackRock recently announced it would be reducing its employees by approximately 600 people, that is about 3% of their staff world wide.
BlackRocks decision to slim the herd is part of a larger trend in the financial industry. Firms are moving strategically to adapt to the changing market conditions and unforeseen economic status.
Ebay
As the tech industry continues to change eBay, along with many other tech companies, has had to make changes. Ebay announced in January 2024, that business is slowing and it will be cutting down its workfound by 1,000. This layoff will consist of about 9% of its entire workforce. Jamie Iannone, the company’s CEO stated that this decision had to be made out of necessity, expenses and staff growth had grown faster than the business itself.
As the e-commerce business continues to evolve, the companies within its framework have to adjust to stay competitive, this includes eBay. In addition to the aforementioned reasons, eBay has made the decision to end many relationships with external contractors, further adding to their reasons for change within the company.
Google has laid off over a thousand employees since January 10, 2024 from an array of departments, with Sundar Pichai, the CEO saying that further layoffs should be expected.
The teams affected by these layoffs have been ad sales, search, maps, hardware, policy, YouTube, and core engineering. Although the company has made layoffs this year and continues to suggest they will have to do more, it isn’t nearly as bad as the 12,000 layoffs last year made by the company.
Unity
Unity Software, is a prominent video game software provider. According to the company, it has plans to lay off about 25% of its entire workforce. This will add up to about 1,800 jobs in total, as revealed in a regulatory filing and an internal memo.
These are the biggest layoffs in the San Francisco-based company’s history. The end date is expected to be by the end of March of 2024. Unity employs over 1.1 million game creators monthly, including developers of popular games like “Pokemon Go,” “Beat Saber,” and “Hearthstone.” The layoffs are a devastating blow to the well known gaming industry company employees.
Wayfair
The well known online retailer Wayfair recently announced it had laid off about 1,650 employees in a 3 week period in January of 2024. This is approximately 13% of their entire workforce worldwide.
The company expects to save $280 million in cost each year as a result of these budget cuts. The CEO and co-founder of Wayfair, Niraj Shah, explained that this decision falls inline with the company’s foundational principles of efficient resource allocation and focusing on key priorities.
TikTok
The large social media TikTok announced in mid January 2024, confirmed its plans to lay off 60 employees.The primary people being affected by this decision are those that work in sales and advertising. TikTok explained that these layoffs were part of a routine organizational restructure, with the intent to optimize its operations and described these layoffs as part of a routine organizational restructure, aiming to optimize its operations and reorganize resources to better align with strategic objectives.
The tech industry as a whole seems to be making adjustments and TikTok is no exception. Companies are constantly adapting their workforce to meet market conditions and business needs. The layoffs at TikTok may seem small in comparison to some others, but it highlights the challenges that tech companies are faced with these days.
Tuesday Morning
Tuesday Morning, a discounted retail store, has been facing challenges for a while now. In 2023 the company filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and announced that they had plans to shut the doors permanently on more than half of their stores, including 24 locations in Texas alone. The decision was made to mitigate the companies already challenging debt situation.
In an attempt to support current operations the company secured financing from Invictus Global Management. The majority of store closures were in areas that didn’t have high traffic, their hope is that this move will help support future operations.
Vroom
Vroom is an online marketplace for consumers to find and purchase used vehicles. Recently the company has undergone a significant shift in its business strategy.
Vroom announced that it would be doing away with its e-commerce operations and scaling down its used vehicle dealership. This shift in the company has led to 800 employees being laid off, accounting for 90% of their workforce.
Morgan Stanley
In late 2023 Morgan Stanley commenced a substantial workforce reduction, planning to lay off 3,000 employees in total. This decision was made in effort to streamline operations as a result of a sifting market and a significant decline in investment banking and banking revenues..
These layoffs occurred across numerous locations, with a noteworthy amount taking place outside of New York City, even though a large number of Morgan Stanley’s employees are based out of there. The cuts affected mainly underperforming investment bankers and traders, while the wealth management division stayed pretty much intact.
Walmart
In 2023 Walmart put forth efforts to reduce its workforce, they laid off over 2,000 employees at five U.S. warehouse locations in 2023 that handled online orders. The states that were primarily affected by the layoffs were Texas, Pennsylvania, Florida, and New Jersey.
According to Walmart this reduction in staff was part of their response to have better alignment with future customer needs, making note that they are committed to helping affected employees employment opportunities at other locations.
Gap
Gap announced in late 2023 that they had plans to reduce staff by about 1,800, the slimming down was part of their restructuring strategy to save annually. They have ideas of reshaping the company for future growth, focusing on the customer experience and optmizing operations.
The main location affected by the layoffs was the company’s headquarters and higher ups. Showing that there has been a growing trend of layoffs in the corporate industry, especially in technology companies.
3M
In 2023, 3M announced substantial workforce layoffs as a component of its global restructuring efforts. Originally in January the company had planned to get rid of 2,500 employees that worked in manufacturing posistions. However in April 3M disclosed that they had plans to further their layoff efforts and reduce their workforce by approximately 6,000 jobs.
Their efforts were made to optimize operations, reduce the corporate center, simplify their supply chains, and reduce management tiers. Furthermore 1,100 of these layoffs were meant to take place at the company’s Maplewood headquarters. The terminations were set to start around June 30, 2023. The decision to do this stemmed from 3M’s efforts to ever changing economic challenges and to reframe its global operations.
Jenny Craig
The well known weight loss company Jenny Craig announced in 2023 that it would be closing its centers across Canada and the U.S. due to ongoing financial difficulties.
This came from the company’s inability to secure more financing, causing its physical operations to decline. Because of this the company was forced to initiate layoffs that affected field employees and corporate workers alike.
Lyft
According to Lyft the company has had to significantly reduce its workforce, so much so that it has impacted 26% of its employees, approximately 1,072 employees. The company has plans to restructure and enhance its services and increase profability.
On top of its mass layoffs, the company has also slowed down hiring, getting rid of 250 open employment opportunities.
Whole Foods
Whole foods announced in 2023 that it would be restructuring the framework of the company, this included laying off hundreds of corporate employees.
Layoff efforts did not affect employees that worked in distribution centers or instore employees.
BuzzFeed
Towards the end of 2023, Buzzfeed experienced a significant organizational changes to their 1,200 personnel workforce This involved shutting down its Pulitzer Prize-winning news division, BuzzFeed News.
The company had been experiencing financial difficulties, and made this decision as part of the bigger picture to ‘stop the bleeding’, and refocus on more lucrative aspects of the business. Unfortunately this decision led to laying off 180 employees across multiple divisions within the company. The layoffs were company wide and were felt in almost every department.
Tyson Foods
In 2024, Tyson Foods Inc. experienced several challenges in 2024 leading to layoffs and operational adjustments. The company chose to reduce its employees by 10% in the corporate sector and 15% of senior leadership roles. This was part of the company’s efforts to implement a strategy that would improve efficiency and address declining profits.
This was a notable occurrence given the company’s status within the U.S. meat sales industry. Sadly no matter which way you slice it all of these companies have undergone serious changes for one reason or the other and people’s livelihoods have been forever changed.
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