Although permanent layoffs have been the most common way to shrink staff during the pandemic, dozens of startups instituted furloughs to try to avoid a bigger layoff. Furloughed employees were kept on health insurance and told that their employment status would be revisited in a few months.
Now that the furlough period is ending for some of these employees, we’re starting to see what tech companies decide to do. In a positive sign, Yelp said last week that it would bring back “nearly all” of the 1,100 employees it furloughed in April.
Other employees aren’t so lucky. Vox Media will reportedly lay off most of their furloughed employees, with additional job cuts coming on top. Hospitality startup Oyo laid off the “large majority” of its furloughed U.S. employees.
The Layoffs.fyi Tracker doesn’t count furloughs, but will be tracking which companies end up laying off their furloughed employees.
Below is a recap of the layoffs from this past week.
🏢 LinkedIn ∙ 🌎 SF Bay Area ∙ 👩 960 employees (6%) ∙ 🔗Source
- Professional networking site LinkedIn laid off 960 employees (6%) across its Global Sales and Talent Acquisition teams. The company said its Talent Solutions business has been hurt due to a slowdown in hiring during the pandemic. Talent Solutions sells sourcing tools and job listings to help companies hire.
🏢 Lighter Capital ∙ 🌎 Seattle ∙ 👩 22 employees (49%) ∙ 🔗Source
- Lighter Capital, which provides revenue-based financing to startups, laid off 22 employees (49%). The company previously cut 22% in April. Lighter Capital’s loans are repaid from a startup’s future revenue. But with startups facing lower revenue projections in light to the pandemic, it’s likely that Lighter Capital’s lending model is under pressure.
🏢 Curefit ∙ 🌎 Bengaluru ∙ 👩 120 employees ∙ 🔗Source
- An India-based fitness startup, CureFit’s job cut affected 600 employees, 70-80% of whom were furloughed. The company previously laid off 800 employees in May. Fitness centers are part of India’s shutdown orders, and CureFit has had to permanently close a number of its gyms.