Tech layoffs: Qualcomm, LinkedIn, and Bandcamp lead a bad October

Many had hoped that the massive tech layoffs of late 2022 and early 2023 were over. That period saw nearly every major tech giant—from Google to Microsoft to Meta to Amazon—shed tens of thousands of tech workers. But while the flood of layoffs has stemmed since earlier this year, a number of notable tech companies have announced cuts since the beginning of October.

Here’s a roundup of the latest major names in tech that have announced job cuts this month:

Qualcomm

The semiconductor and wireless technology giant announced this month that it would lay off about 1,258 employees, making it the tech company that has announced the most layoffs by number of individual workers in October, according to data compiled by Layoffs.fyi.

Qualcomm told CNBC that the layoffs were part of “restructuring actions” that would free up resources to enable “investments in key growth and diversification opportunities.” While 1,258 employees are significant, it represents less than 2.5% of Qualcomm’s 51,000 workforce.

LinkedIn

Yesterday the social media giant announced it would be eliminating another 668 jobs. Sadly, this is LinkedIn’s third major round of job cuts this year alone, following cuts in February and May. LinkedIn said the “talent changes” were necessary for managing its business so it could continue to “invest in strategic priorities for our future.” This round’s 668 layoffs equal about 3% of LinkedIn’s total workforce.

Bandcamp

It’s been a brutal month for Bandcamp, an audio distribution platform that was until recently part of Epic Games. Epic acquired Bandcamp in 2022 only to announce last month that it would sell the company to B2B music platform Songtradr. Epic made the Bandcamp sale announcement at the same time it laid off around 16% of its employees, with Epic CEO Tim Sweeney saying the company has “been spending way more money than we earn.”

Unfortunately for Bandcamp employees, it is now known that not all of them will keep their jobs under the new ownership. At least one former Bandcamp employee said on X that “about half the company was laid off” this morning. Layoffs.fyi puts the number of Bandcamp layoffs at 58, which is 50% of the workforce—the largest percentage of any tech company so far this month.

https://www.fastcompany.com/90968405/tech-layoffs-tracker-mass-job-losses-2023-linkedin-bandcamp-qualcomm?partner=rss&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=rss+fastcompany&utm_content=rss