NEW YORK – Job hiring platform Indeed will cut about 2,200 positions, roughly 15 per cent of its total workforce, joining a cohort of technology companies including Amazon.com and Facebook parent Meta in culling workers amid economic uncertainty.
The cuts at Indeed will affect “nearly every team”, Mr Chris Hyams, the firm’s chief executive officer, wrote in a blog posted on the Texas-based business’ website on Wednesday.
Indeed is owned by Japan-based Internet and staffing company Recruit Holdings.
Mr Hyams said the job market will continue to cool after the post-pandemic boom. He also expects that human resource tech revenue will decline in fiscal year 2023 and possibly again in 2024.
The tech industry has been decimated in recent months after bulking up during the pandemic, when demand surged for electronics and data services as people worked and studied from home.
But steadily rising interest rates, which make it more expensive for companies to borrow money, and a slowing economy have led to retrenchments.
The collapse of start-up-friendly Silicon Valley Bank earlier in March sent a shock wave through the tech sector and added pressure on an already fragile economy.
Some 500 tech companies have shed more than 150,000 workers in 2023 alone, according to website Layoffs.fyi.
Earlier this week, Amazon said it is laying off another 9,000 employees, adding to cuts that were already the largest round of firings in the company’s history.
Total US job openings were down 3.5 per cent in the last quarter from a year earlier, Mr Hyams said, while sponsored job volumes were down 33 per cent. In the United States, he added, “job openings will likely decrease to pre-pandemic levels of about 7.5 million or even lower over the next two to three years”.
Given that environment, “our organisation is simply too big for what lies ahead”, Mr Hyams wrote. “We have held out longer than many other companies, but the revenue trends are undeniable.”
Mr Hyams said Indeed will be instituting “additional cost-saving measures”, which he would announce on Thursday, and that he will take a 25 per cent cut in his base pay. BLOOMBERG
