Twitter lays off one third of talent acquisition team

It is a challenging to be a tech employer right now.

There is the triple threat of the ‘Great Resignation’, tech stocks facing strong headwinds, and there is a cost of living crisis, creating concerns of a looming recession.

In this context, many tech companies have implemented hiring freezes – examples include Uber, Twitter and Meta.

But as the situation gets tougher, a few employers have gone one step further and announced lay-offs.

According to layoffs.fyi, almost 50,000 tech workers have lost their jobs in 2022 (30,000 of which occurred in May and June). Crypto companies and Netflix have led the way here.

After a few phases of executive redundancies, Twitter has now announced it will lay off 30% of its talent acquisition team, as reported by TechCrunch. It is unclear precisely how many employees will be affected.

The remaining 70% will be moved into other parts of the organization given that the company has pivoted away from recruiting, including replacing those who have left.

The lay offs at Twitter come as Tesla CEO Elon Musk prepares to buy the social media giant for $44 billion.

In a recent All Hands meeting, Musk hinted at future job cuts.

He said that Twitter “needs to get healthy” – “right now, costs exceed revenue – that’s not a great situation” – and that “anyone who is a significant contributor should have nothing to worry about”.

Is this the final round of lay offs at Twitter? Or are more tech jobs at the social media giant at risk, particularly if Musk does acquire Twitter?

Remote cuts 100 jobs after $300 million Series C

Twitter is not the only company to announce layoffs this week.

Hot on the heels of EdTech giant Degreed, which recently reinstated co-founder David Blake as CEO and acquired his newest startup Learn In, cutting its workforce by 15%, working from anywhere unicorn Remote has laid off around 9% of its 1,028 employees.

Remote raised $300 million in a Series C in April, which transformed it into a unicorn.

Remote CEO and co-founder Job van der Voort noted: “We can confirm that this week we made the difficult decision to start a redundancy process potentially impacting around 100 teammates at Remote, around 9% of our total workforce.

“It was an incredibly tough call, but in light of economic uncertainty, we are making a conscious decision to change our path now to focus on long term sustainability.

“Sales, Recruiting, and Marketing are a few of the teams affected as well as some support functions. Both technical and non-technical roles are affected.

“We are very grateful for all of their contributions and are doing everything we can to ensure they are taken care of during this transition, including offering generous financial payments to all affected employees, and allowing them to keep their IT equipment and other peripherals provided by the company.

“Remote is doing well, and we want to guarantee to everyone that we’ll still be around in decades to come. Although painful, this move will help us focus even more on our commitment to creating opportunities for companies and individuals anywhere via access to global employment.”

If this article caught your interest, you can find more like it here. Enjoy!