This has been a brutal month or so for tech layoffs. According to our Layoff Tracker, there have been 19,683 job eliminations at tech companies announced since mid-September, and we’re not even counting the 24,600 people at Hewlett-Packard who are being eliminated as a result of its merger with EDS.
But only five big companies make up more than 90 percent of the layoffs: Xerox (3,000), Dell (8,900), Yahoo (1,500), eBay (1,500), and German chipmaker Qimonda (3,000). The other 33 companies are mostly startups, and collectively account for 1,683 layoffs. Although three more companies (Sony Ericsson, Nvidia, and TicketMaster) account for an additional 1,110 job losses.
After stripping those out, you get closer to a pure number of layoffs at tech startups: 573
That is the equivalent of about 57 startups with ten people each. And those are just the ones that we or other news outlets have been able to confirm. Our list of tips is much longer than that and we are working through it to confirm as many as we can. For instance, Cake Financial has laid off 30 percent of its staff, or 6 people.
Another company with unreported layoffs earlier this week was Meraki, which I’ve confirmed let go 20 percent of its staff (10 people). That makes Meraki the third Sequoia-backed company to announce layoffs this week. (The other two were Mahalo and imeem). Sequoia urged all of its portfolio companies to make cut-backs earlier this month.
At least most of these startups are already done with their layoffs, unlike Yahoo which announced a 10 percent cut is coming but won’t say who exactly is losing their jobs for another few weeks. Layoffs are bad enough, but don’t prolong the misery.
This past week alone, tech companies have laid off 13,809 people:
Company–––––––––Layoffs
Xerox————3,000
Daptiv————–21
Haute Secure———3
Cake Financial——–6
Mercent————-6
Dell————-8,900
imeem————-20
Mahalo————-6
TicketMaster——300
Eons—————8
Veoh————–15
Yahoo———-1,500
Wikia—————3
Meraki————-10
Break.com———-11
Total———-13,809
If you know of any layoffs at a tech company, please submit a tip with the name of the company and number of layoffs. If it’s been covered, also send a link to the blog post or news article.
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Post
I think that this now constitutes kicking a dead horse. I am all for reporting on the downturn, but this repeated posting is a bit much for me. Could you setup a feed that had this type of post can be filtered? (ala engadget….).
Thanks guys.
Well, you can stick your head in the sand if you want, but we are going to keep reporting and updating readers on this. 13,809 tech layoffs in one week, that’s significant.
Erick, it is ok to keep reporting bad news; at least, you are [consistently] following the traditional approach of news outlets. We all know that “good” news do not sell anything…
Now, it would be interesting, and for TC’s sake, if you educate us and comment on the *real* percentage represented by that 13,809 people laid off compared to the *TOTAL* of the IT labor force… Thank you!
I know that being laid off is far from being a ‘fun’ experience… But how is “13,809 tech layoffs in one week” significant in a country withh 300+M people?
Again, your “reporting” and perspective is quite narrow and provincial. The US does not end when you live NY City… [surprise!]
I don’t think people are saying don’t report this or sticking there heads in the sand. I think they are saying after the 10th post about layoffs we get it and now it is boring. Isn’t there a company out there that Mike could have a fight with?
PLEASE SOMEONE piss Mike off cause it is so much more fun when he rants and raves like a madman…
How does 13,809 layoffs compare to the past? Can you give us a trend chart? Is 13,809 significant or insignificant.
I don’t think you can answer that. You just started tracking, and currently have some sensationalist numbers without any big-picture perspective. Maybe get back to us when you have some perspective on this. Some of us have lived through the downturns in the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s and 2000.
I’m not saying that it’s insignificant. I’m saying that your reporting lacks perspective.
I think a lot of businesses are using the economy as an excuse to clean house, and this is really a healthy thing for the economy as well as for the individuals whose contribution wasn’t held in high regard. Now the individuals can go on to START A STARTUP and prove their worth.
Trust me Eric, my head is as far from the sand as I can keep it. Really though, I think this is important.
But 13k people in a downturn really isn’t that surprising. Makes good sense really, tightening for the winter, as Jason would say.
My two cents, let us all start looking ahead than at the current economic situation. That we largely cannot control, but the future is ours.
Haha… true. But I find the constant reminders helpful - so that we won’t lapse into complacency. Well, we can leverage on new online tools to earn side income
I think it is alright for Alex Wilhelm to comment on the article & I also think TC has the right to publish whatever it wants. But I was rather taken aback by Erick’s “you can stick your head in the sand if you want” reply to Alex, which in my opinion, is somewhat rude. As a blogger, I would be very appreciative of the continuous support & feedback from my readers.
Amidst all this gloomy talk, did you hear about the startup job fair at Palo Alto (website below) that’s on next week? More than a dozen startups are hiring at this focused event.
-TP
IT Layoffs? Give me a break. Dell laying off 8000 people… Dell layed off 8000 line workers who put RAM modules in a slot on a motherboard.
Im sure the story is the same for other companies.
If you work for a tech company, you aren’t a tech person, sorry. These statistics suck.
If the likes of Yahoo and Dell are laying off people - and on the other hand, we have startups looking for talents, - then jobseekers just need to be proactive and change according to the conditions in the job market. Let’s look at the fundamental reasons behind why Dell is firing and start-ups are hiring - to increase profit - and in order to do that, companies are looking for ways to use resources more effectively - which means also, that there are more jobs available to freelancers
Companies don’t see the point in hiring more programmers than they need at a particular time. But on the other hand, work needs to be done - and the nature of some projects are seasonal. So, if you’re a freelancer, this is a wonderful time to earn side income 
FYI - my buddy works at intuit and he says they’re hiring like mad.
kcurtis
Web Monitoring Software
http://www.ngagelive.com
…this is true
well burger king and mcdonald’s are hiring so with their resume they’ll have no trouble finding work there.
I’d be interested to see what percentage this has been of all US layoffs in the last quarter
Erick does not know and, obviously, does not care…
harsh
There have been 1 million unemployed that have just run out of benefits since last week.
There are different thing to note here:
1. The recently laid off.
2. The current laid off.
3. The laid off who have just run out of benefits.
For god sake, I am sick of hearing about this. Just FYI - all is bright, sunny and beautiful in Sydney Australia, and people are hiring. Why? We aren’t packed to the rafters with VC backed startups with no business logic.
@Anthony –Thank you for the news from down under.
You may not realize this, but the IT field/companies in Sidney are only a tiny, minuscule, almost microscopic fraction compared to the US and Western Europe’s… sorry.
Which is why so many of them are pointless failures.
The comparison in size was never commented on / denied. Sure, we have a smaller I.T field (don’t I know it!) but at least ours works and our banks don’t just lend to anyone. We need to provide fucking countless amounts of documentation on how it is all guaranteed to work - not just an elevator pitch.
VC’s created this mess.
“VC’s created this mess”??? What mess?
Of course, some of the VCs lose money –that is why it is called *VENTURE CAPITAL* You may not believe this, since you are sooooooooooo far away, but here in the US, there are hundreds and hundreds of successful, money-making IT companies [many funded by those 'messy' venture capitalists]
I’m sure there are a lot of legitimate companies funded by VC’s. However, VC’s got greedy and all it took was an elevator pitch. Then, they lost money. Then, they blamed another ‘dotcom bubble burst’… whatever.
Yes, “whatever” –You really don’t know what you are talking about, sounding just like a 12 year old blogger/dreamer that has not done *anything* in the IT field…
You should remember that “puppies must stay in the porch when the big dogs play around…”
Peace
Alan, no, I would be fairly accurate. Problem is, you have no idea on how to admit that perhaps many dreamers had just that, a dream, and with a little bit of a sell at a VC, you both overshot and EPICLY FAILED.
Some day, you will realise that any mistake YOU make, is just that, YOUR MISTAKE.
By the way - I would dare to say I have done more in the IT field than you could ever dream of. Difference is? I don’t go blowing VC cash on a ‘dream’ with no solid plan.
Cheers.
“I don’t go blowing VC cash on a ‘dream’ with no solid plan” What a guy!
Would let his “dream” for a start-up die before ‘blowing’ a VC cash???
Maybe ‘blowing’ has a different meaning down under…
What kind of weed are you smoking, bro?
Anthony in Sydney, you are very naive. Government departments and banks in Australia, including Sydney, have hiring freezes, and we have plenty of clueless Web 2.0 wannabes. Even the recruiters are admitting a downturn is on the way. (I guess because they don’t want to look completely stupid.)
Sydney is not some paradise. It’s a shallow backwater where the IT guys are even more clueless about their working conditions than those in the US.
That all depends on what sort of ‘IT guy’ you are talking about. The ones that matter (e.g, build *new* things) are very much in the know.
I know people are sick of this, but every day there are new layoffs. In fact, if you look at the tracker now, there are 19,708 layoffs because another company has been added. We are not doing a post for each set of layoffs, but we will be updating readers regularly on what is going on.
I don’t think you need to defend yourself. I would rather a news source choose what is important themselves, then I can choose if THEY are important. We all know what happens when the popular (read: loudest) vote is valued the highest in news sources.
Cool!!! What a concept! Let someone –anyone== do the thinking for you, while you take the shortest road to Alzheimer’s…
Watch a lot of TV on your way there. Preferably Oprah.
You should really make the comparisons to the entire U.S. & what percentage of the pie that these businesses are contributing to GDP or something like that.
Additionally, it’s interesting to note that there have been 1 million unemployed that have just run out of benefits since last week.
Compare that to the new people unemployed & the number of people already unemployed.
Next thing to go will be the small banks. FBI will be finding major disasters with small banks in these areas: Silicon Valley, Cali, Texas & Georgia — mark my words.
Then, next week — the DOW will hit -1,000, only because investors are getting ready make the stocks really low & then reinvest after the election.
Watch!
Hey yeah… How about also adding a form to submit tips on whose hiring now? That might be very interesting to see a comparison of the companies who are shedding staff vs. those perhaps positioning themselves to be stronger after the eventual recovery.
This would be the most interesting thing to watch now.
Eric, the tech world does not need more layoffs, they just need Terry Tate, right? Productivity at Fletcher & Son’s is up by 46%
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kg5cdZ-Fnpc
the sarah palin skit had me rofl
@ silicon valley dropout - thats actually how I found it. Brilliant!
I dont’ understand the logic behind the chart above. Why does the company represented by the green line have a positive slope after the cut and the green company has slope=0. Wouldn’t the red company have get more done while it had more eployees after the first cut? In which case, wouldn’t the revenue be higher? Why is the slope 0 then?
I don’t see any revenue in that chart. It’s just the relationship between expenses and longevity, right?
I agree that this is beating a dead horse. A lot of these layoffs have nothing to do with the economy (ebay, yahoo). Yahoo for example has been shedding folks due to poor management and lack of direction. This is Ebay’s first layoff and was planned well before this month.
In my view, a lot of this reporting is “scaring” folks to thinking that the job market in the valley isn’t strong. I can tell you first hand it is very strong, especially for engineers.
Robert Greene
http://www.greenesearch.com
Ditto. We must remember that Erick is kind of a NY City ’sniper’ –far removed from the Valley. He has no clue…
Come to think of it, he should be working for the NY Times, which is fast heading to the *big* deadpool…
Says the guy from the IT hiring company… (robert)
I think eBay cuts is because of the economy. If they had more faith in the economy, they’d be hiring people to fix ebay’s issues.
I wanted to bring up the point that there are others in the tech field, when you include ebay anyhow. Our sales are suffering (I’m a manager of the ebay/amazon sales dept. for a business). We haven’t fired anyone, and wouldn’t for a while, but it is a possibility. Perhaps ebay is particular to this effect, but there is kind of a trickle down. We don’t work in tech specifically (and neither do most of the people downsized), but it’s still the same slowdown causing this.
We’ve just hired three new people. Doesn’t sound great (and certainly doesn’t make up for the job losses) but it’s and increase of 40% at Smibs Inc. We’ll keep working at it.
Just feed the panic beast! I made 5 offers over the last two weeks and they keep opening up reqs
How many are employed in the tech industry in total? How many are employed in the start up community? If you don’t report that, the numbers you state are not so meaningful. For example, if there are 100k working in the start up industry world wide, 500 or so jobs is less than 1 %. Also, no offense to HR, how many of those layoffs are actually tech jobs.
Lastly, i have seen that bloody meaningless graph too many times. Yes, we get it, companies who are quick to trim staff to save cash will be better off in your opinion. Don’t waste my bandwidth.
I agree. I think that Arrington might be applying some sort of “affirmative action” while allowing Erick’s posts, which, because of their slant, low quality and value, many of smart TC readers might consider *garbage*–
Thank goodness. Let the bubble implode so we can focus on value added technologies. e.g. energy development.
IT unemployment in the Bay Area is around 2.4%
How about you start a count of companies that are hiring…
I just started interviewing and have gotten 4 interviews in less than a week.
The recruiter I talked too had several more, but they just weren’t a fit.
Greg, “companies that are hiring” is GOOD news. Good news do not sell anything. I am sure that Erick consider them ‘useless,’
What are we to do with this information? Quit? Give up? Stop trying? I think I’d rather hear about new deals or new products or even Sarah Palin’s wardrobe than an accurate count of the layoffs of the week. Yikes.
I will have to agree with Erick, it’s the truth and it’s his duty to report it, even if it’s critical of the industry.
Personally, I’ve been a product of a tech layoff in the past; and often it’s the gossip/tech blogs who are tipped off by anonymous tipsters.
Many large companies conceal their the news from their employees and as a result, they can’t prepare for significant life changes. As a result, corporations fear their employees and that’s how news gets leaked to VW, SAI and TC. It’s not rocket science.
Personally, I learned of my exit through a rather accurate tip shared on VW. Knock it, refute it, rumors all come from somewhere.
~J
There are over 23,000 jobs openings posted less than 7 days ago on simplyhired
Check on dice, monster, hotjobs and you’ll find many many jobs posted recently.
It is still very hard to find good talent in the valley.
But all of this would not be Erick-newsworthy.
Sigh…
looks to me like the internet goldrush is over. i dont see those jobs coming back anytime soon. this is one subject that tc is not afraid to drop the hatchet on. question: is it in tc’s best interest to shower the start up community with dismal labor news? they kinda beein like a “raging bull in a glass house” . be gentle. promote some hope.
ReliefLocator.com
Nvidia laid off at least 360 people. In addition, they also laid a bunch of people in small batches so it would not be labeled as a layoff to avoid bad press.
I think the truth of all of this - those who were fired, simply dead-weight. If you were worth your weight in crap, you would not have been dropped. But you were - hence, you were simply dead-weight. Good riddance.
Servers the same purpose posting body counts during wartime. It attacks confidence . You know, look what they did to you over Iraq
Ditto. Erick is starting to sound like Harry Reid: “we already lost the war” or, like Chicken Little: “The Sky is Falling” –I’ll go with the chicken…
Jeez, are you serious? I didn’t realize the layoffs in the IT sector had hit this level. Just out of interest, I would love to see how this is affecting India.
It may actually increase the number of employees at call centers… you know, the ones pretending to be “Charlie” and “Wendy”…
I honor of the Aussies commenting in this post i only have one thing to say:
Criiiikeeey!
Wow! Didn’t see that coming
hehehe.
cheers mate… where’s maah beeer
What percentage is 19,683 tech job of overall tech jobs in this country? Probably 5%. Let’s get this in perspective. Companies lay off and hire workers all the time. The net tech job is probably even lower. Let’s not create any more fear and panic than necessary.
What about all of the Telecom and Cell phone techs? Guess you forgot about the switch, cell engineers, all of the RF engineers and back support like translations engineers and people that set up all the routing for all your calls?
so…the techcrunch 50 is turning into the techcrunch 5
As VoIP/SIP Trunking ties the telecommunications industry closer to the IT field, is the fate of the tech industry in the current economic climate a bellwether for the telecom industry? Hard to say for sure. The tech industry is certainly taking some hits from the economic perfect storm that continues to walk across the globe. It’s been said that mid and top tier tech companies are weathering the storm better than online and hardware vendors.
http://telecommonthly.com/2008.....h-layoffs/
These numbers do not take into account the thousands of jobs lost to start-ups that no one keeps track of.
“the thousands of jobs lost to start-ups” You will have to explain this one.
BHO
I think one of the problems we have right now is that we are shooting first without waiting to see where the economy is going. Sequoia comes out and says we are in a 15 year bear market and everyone buys into it…other VCs start pulling investments, telling portfolio companies to cut staff and shift into bunker mode. We all are getting sucked into a negative vortex…descending into self-reinforcing negative cycle in which these things feed upon themselves. I think it making a bad situation much, much worse than needed.
-PudJr
http://www.f-ckedcompany.com
Thank you! Sequoia will use this as an excuse to drop obligations they made. Like they did last time
Are you including yourself Mike, after you pay big bucks for trampling on someone else’s IP? Professionally, you be taking the dirt nap, fat boy.
Fat man in a little coat!!!!!!
wrong its now +1 = 19684
Eric Schonfeld was fired from TechCrunch, for posting too many lame posts on layoffs.
Take that bitch. Didn’t see that coming. did ya?
It seems safer to work in a small IT company than a big one, regarding your figures (5 big companies make 90% of the layoffs).
Yeah, but some startups are being smart and actually hiring when it is easier (like now)…
http://www.rockstarfair.com
I don’t understand the inclusion of Dell. The fact that they were going to let go of 8,900 people was announced almost a year ago. Michael finally announced they had met that goal a couple of weeks ago. Who knows how much of that was just attrition.
A question, yes companies have a right to make layoffs. However, did the pay of the executives change. Did they diminish according to the performance of the company?
yes over a dozen startups hiring at ROCKSTAR Startup Fair http://www.rockstarfair.com
Lay-offs have also started hitting India in a big way. Its viral. With so many comapany across the domains announcing it, its the hard times for every corporate worker.
I am in the US –Can you be more specific?
Companies should not be allowed to have employees unless it maintains high cash reserves. It’s not all about you Mr. start up owner
Please note: If you don’t have employees, *YOU DO NOT HAVE A COMPANY*
Get It?
sequoia is manipulating valuations. This is a clever ploy. Scare the market and then see their funds lps see huge gains when all these late stage deals bear fruit. Also the cram downs and IP for free gives them extra shots at the apple.
The Dead Weight argument is a red herring with respect to startups. Often it us poltical. In companies under 100 employees there simply isn’t a lot of it to be found. Most if it gets jettisoned without sequoia making mandatory cuts. The number 10% is telling. It doesn’t tie to profit per se. It’s random headline grabbing. Who’s to say it really should be 3.7% or only 1 person? The numbers are press release generating. Think of it this way. If you know that no matter what any investment you make has less than a 10% chance for success, what’s the fuss? Firing staff now still won’t make their odds any better. It will only prolong the failure that has already been accounted for when the investment was originally made. When taken as a whole the portfolios chances for success are no better. If they said to cease ad spending and cut pr that would be a more focused operational decision. But across the board cuts is simply preposterous. And for any firm to mandate that so quickly without allowing the portfolios who ostensibly know their staff and their markets better to make up their own minds and come back with reviews and recommendations is also highly suspect. The implication is that the portfolio will spend wisely now. Oh really? They could equally as stupid with a smaller staff. Also demanding profitability when their original investment rationale called for a different investment / spending
philosophy is just madness.
Also each portfolio company is on it’s own trajectory. All are in different phases of maturity. Moreover they sometimes have seasonality or longer buying cycles than others. So demanding a one size fits all business strategy for cost containment us simply bad business practice. The portfolios raised the money to scale and to hire. To call those hired under the agreed upon business plans and board approved stock grants dead weight merely bc they were laid off is simply a fraud.
Bad investments that burn money at a slower clip are still bad investment
period.
The other issue here circles around whether venture capital induces financial waste and whether that waste has harmed basic business practice. The answer would or could be yes. If it distorts the market prices and that acts as a block to young under or non vc funded companies then they collectively have stacked the pricing scheme in their favor. You must use them. You simply have no choice. Their proclivities predilections and fashions ultimately sway your decisions bc if you don’t pay homage to your benefactors they ultimately cut you off. So when things get a little rough suddenly their appetite for risk evaporates eh? All the bravado and puffery just melts away to reveal the cowardice that actually belies most vc master of the universe archetpyes. The truth is they make the game function the way it does. They dictate hiring and if they over hired it was bc it was in they wanted it so. This is not a start up problem. This is a board problem.
Don’t blame staffers for accepting a job the vcs offered them under the terms the vcs structured.
You don’s make much sense, half-points projecting your personal experience, as what? Confusing.
Try decaf from time to time… “it will do you good” –and also will do us all ‘good’
Some people perceive this as an opportunity to hire talent at very low cost…I think some of the companies also recognize this and hire people like crazy at the moment. Eventually this crisis will also be a thing of the past someday. Regards
As someone who has been unemployed for quite a while after getting downsized earlier this year, I personally find information like this post very valuable.
Just in the past week I was millimeters away from getting 2 job offers that were pulled at the last minute because the position was being put on hold pending another round of funding or stark adjustments to company financials in light of the current economic crisis facing the banking industry.
Like it or not, people need to understand how current events impact them and their way of life. Reading about the number of tech layoffs gave me even more insight into what’s happening with my interviews and lost offers.
What I would love to see TechCrunch post next is a compendium of all of the Bay area companies that *are* hiring and a breakdown by job title… that would help me narrow my focus on where to look next.
Look here: 14+ companies hiring. 40+ openings. http://www.rockstarfair.com You need an invite to go, but hopefully TechCrunch will be kind enough to give you one.
As an update to the Hurricane Layer we launched last week, we’ve added some additional data to support the approach of potentially dangerous Hurricane Ike. The folks at Weather Bonk have once again provided us with Webcam data in Texas. Look under the “Hurricane Season 2008″ folder under “Weather” to see
“Hurricane Ike Webcams.”
Vwery good aticle indeed.
http://www.anonymity.pro.tc
@nathan
Talk about not making sense. Your post was incomprehensible drivel. Half points? Better than half sentences and uncompleted thought fragments.
Try seroquel or ridlin. It’ll curb that ADD.