🌎 London ∙ 👩 At least 4 employees ∙ 🖥 Multiple departments
Perkbox, which makes HR software designed to improve the employee experience, conducted a layoff last week. In a LinkedIn post announcing the layoff, the company launched a talent directory showcasing some of its former employees (see link 👇).
The Perkbox layoff list features 4 ex-employees based in London.
Our live Layoffs Tracker has a real-time report of all startups that have done layoffs.
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
🏢 Lighter Capital ∙ 🌎 Seattle ∙ 👩 22 employees (49%) ∙ 🔗Source
🏢 Curefit ∙ 🌎 Bengaluru ∙ 👩 120 employees ∙ 🔗Source
🌎 Paris ∙ 👩 At least 68 employees ∙ 🖥 Engineering and Product
A Paris-based ride-hailing company owned by Free Now Group, Kapten set up a Talent Directory to promote its departed alumni (see link 👇). In a LinkedIn post promoting the directory, Free Now’s CTO said that the company decided to “stop additional investments into [its] Paris Tech hub.”
Back in May, multiple sources told Layoffs.fyi that Kapten was conducting a layoff, with estimates ranging from 130 to 180 employees affected. Due to local labor law regulations, the process was expected to take several months to complete.
The Kapten layoff list features 68 ex-employees, primarily in Engineering and Product.
Our live Layoffs Tracker has a real-time report of all startups that have done layoffs.
🌎 London ∙ 👩 Hundreds of employees ∙ 🖥 Multiple departments
A London-based digital bank, Monzo laid off 120 of its U.K. employees in June and 165 of its Las Vegas employees in April. The company also previously furloughed 295 U.K. employees.
To help its laid-off employees find new roles, Monzo created a talent directory (see link 👇) . It’s not clear whether the directory is meant to cover the company’s previous layoffs, or if there’s been a new round in July. In a LinkedIn post, an employee on Monzo’s talent team alludes to “saying goodbye to some incredibly valued colleagues at Monzo right now.”
As consumers pull back on spending, Monzo generates less revenue from the interchange fees on its debit card products. The company recently raised £60 million at a 40% lower valuation to its prior round last year.
The Monzo layoff list features 24 ex-employees, many of whom are engineers and designers.
Our live Layoffs Tracker has a real-time report of all startups that have done layoffs.
Below is a recap of the layoffs from this past week. Check out the Layoffs.fyi Tracker for a complete list of all tech layoffs during the pandemic.
In case you missed it — we recently looked at usage data from the Layoffs.fyi List to see what types of laid-off employees were getting the most attention from recruiters. Among the findings: there are 4x as many searches for laid-off engineers as there are for the next most popular function (design). You can read the full analysis here.
🏢 OnDeck ∙ 🌎 New York City ∙ 👩 20% of employees ∙ 🔗Source
🏢 Yelp ∙ 🌎SF Bay Area ∙ 👩 63 employees ∙ 🔗Source
🏢 Optimizely ∙ 🌎 SF Bay Area ∙ 👩 60 employees (15%) ∙ 🔗Source
🏢 Vox Media ∙ 🌎 Washington D.C. ∙ 👩 Unknown # employees ∙ 🔗Source
🏢 Skyscanner ∙ 🌎 Edinburgh ∙ 👩 300 employees (20%) ∙ 🔗Source
This blog post was written by Layoffs.fyi intern Stephan Billingslea, a Yale student majoring in economics and statistics.
At a time when hundreds of startups have laid off employees but many others are still hiring, we wanted to explore – what’s in demand for hiring in this current environment?
To find out, we analyzed usage data from the Layoffs.fyi List, which combines 80+ spreadsheets of laid-off tech employees into a single place that’s easy to filter, search, and sort.
Thousands of recruiters and hiring managers use the Layoffs.fyi List to find candidates for their open roles. How they use the site reveals some interesting takeaways about what tech employers are hiring for:
Recruiters and hiring managers primarily use six search filters to browse the 16,000+ laid-off employees on the Layoffs.fyi List.
Prior Department and Location are the filters used most often, based on the percentage of pageviews using each filter.
Engineering is by far the most sought-after function, accounting for over 35% of all pageviews using the Prior Department filter. There are 4x as many searches for laid-off engineers as there are for the next most popular function (Design).
Not surprisingly, demand for tech hiring is clustered around the major startup hubs. The San Francisco Bay Area dominates the domestic search with almost 30% of all pageviews with a Location filter, followed by New York City and Boston. Internationally, Toronto, London, and India are the most searched-for locations.
Software Engineers and Product Managers are the job titles with the highest hiring demand. In fact, the four most searched-for job titles (laid-off Software Engineers, Product Managers, Data Scientists, and Product Designers) are all related to product development.
Former Toast, Uber, and Airbnb employees are the most sought after on the site, suggesting that these companies have a strong reputation for attracting talented employees.
Skills
The most searched-for skills are all related to product development. JavaScript and Python are the programming languages with the highest demand.
The world has changed drastically over the past few months, but one thing remains the same: tech companies still focus their outbound recruiting efforts on engineering.
There’s reason to believe that the coronavirus pandemic may have even amplified this trend. Our previous analysis showed that tech layoffs have affected sales and customer success roles the most, as startups face a new reality of slower customer growth. This may be allowing companies to focus more on product development initiatives instead, leading to sustained interest in hiring engineers.
Data is based on Layoffs.fyi List usage between 5/8/20-6/16/20.
🌎 San Francisco ∙ 👩 39 employees (6%) ∙ 🖥 Multiple departments
A maker of customer messaging software, Intercom laid off 39 employees in May. The company said it was also relocating 47 roles in its marketing and R&D teams from San Francisco to Dublin.
Yesterday the company began publicizing an Intercom Talent Directory to help affected employees find new opportunities (see link 👇). The Intercom layoff list features 25 ex-employees across multiple functions, including 7 engineers in San Francisco.
Our live Layoffs Tracker has a real-time report of all startups that have done layoffs.
Below is a recap of the layoffs from this past week. Check out the Layoffs.fyi Tracker for a complete list of all tech layoffs during the coronavirus pandemic.
🏢 Oyo USA ∙ 🌎 Dallas ∙ 👩 Hundreds of employees ∙ 🔗Source
🏢 Funding Circle ∙ 🌎San Francisco ∙ 👩 85 employees ∙ 🔗Source
🏢 The Wing ∙ 🌎 New York City ∙ 👩 56 employees ∙ 🔗Source
🏢 Hired ∙ 🌎 San Francisco ∙ 👩 Unknown # employees ∙ 🔗Source
🏢 Kongregate ∙ 🌎 SF Bay Area ∙ 👩 12 employees ∙ 🔗Source
🏢 Havenly ∙ 🌎 Denver ∙ 👩 5 employees ∙ 🔗Source
🌎 Nairobi, Lagos, Kigali, Kampala, New York City ∙ 👩 135 employees ∙ 🖥 Multiple departments
An Africa-focused startup that provides “engineering as a service” to other companies, Andela laid off 135 employees in May. The company cited a decline in customers due to the economic downturn. Andela is also shifting its strategy from acting as a talent accelerator to serving as a talent outsourcing firm.
The Andela layoff list features 59 former engineers and 30 non-engineers (see link below 👇). Most are based in Africa, though a few are located in New York City.
Our live Layoffs Tracker has a real-time report of all startups that have done layoffs.
The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) was established by the government to incentivize small businesses to keep their workers employed during the pandemic. However, a Layoffs.fyi analysis reveals that over 100 tech startups conducted layoffs despite receiving loans through the program.
On Monday, the government released the names of all companies that received loans greater than $150,000. Among the tech startups on the list: Getaround (laid off 100 on 3/27, received $5-10 mm loan on 4/28), Metromile (laid off 100 on 4/6, received $5-10 mm loan on 4/7), Lever (laid off 86 on 4/8, received $2-5 mm loan on 4/27), and Mixpanel (received $5-10 mm loan on 4/13, laid off 65 on 5/12).
Some companies have disputed the list’s accuracy, claiming they never received a PPP loan. It’s also worth noting that most of these companies laid off employees before getting the loan.
PPP loans carry a 1% interest rate and a 2 or 5-year term, making them an extremely attractive financing option for startups. The loan can even be forgiven if the company uses at least 60% for payroll costs and doesn’t reduce headcount, among other requirements.
Here’s a list of startups that reportedly received a PPP loan and laid off employees during the pandemic (our Layoffs.fyi Tracker has a complete list of all tech layoffs).
Many venture-backed startups struggled to decide whether to apply for a PPP loan, fearing they’d be taking money that could’ve gone to needier small businesses. Those that received a loan and laid off employees may endure additional scrutiny since the loan didn’t accomplish its intended purpose.
At the same time, PPP loans may have prevented these startups from laying off even more staff or shutting down altogether. 72% of the companies listed above conducted their layoff before receiving the loan, suggesting that the money was used to avoid further business damage.
While companies must retain their employees to qualify for loan forgiveness, there’s no such requirement to take out a PPP loan in the first place. Businesses are also allowed to use the loans for expenses beyond payroll.
Thanks to Layoffs.fyi intern Stephan Billingslea for helping with the research.
