Salesforce Is The Latest Technology Giant To Announce Significant Job Cuts

(CTN News) – Approximately 700 Salesforce employees will be laid off, representing approximately 1% of Salesforce’s global workforce.

A report in the Wall Street Journal states that the disheartening move is part of a continuing trend in 2024, which mirrors what we witnessed in 2023.  The 1% reduction in workforce is significant, but noticeably less drastic than last year’s 10% reduction.

As reported by the WSJ, the company currently has 1,000 job openings across a number of departments. According to an unnamed source cited in the report, the latest layoffs may be the result of a routine adjustment to the company’s headcount rather than a response to ongoing economic difficulties.

Salesforce lays off even more employees

Similar layoffs have been announced by Google this year, which many believe are due to the company’s implementation of artificial intelligence across its advertising department, effectively displacing humans with the technology. Google has not commented on that when we contacted them, however, given Salesforce’s heavy investment in artificial intelligence, we cannot help but wonder whether the technology may also pose a threat to its employees.

As the technology industry continues to struggle post-pandemic, Salesforce’s announcement comes as no surprise, and is likely to be just one of many similar announcements in the future.

Globally, over 262,000 tech workers were laid off last year, and more than 23,000 have already been affected in the first few weeks of this year, according to layoffs. fyi.

In addition, the same website, which tracks layoffs in the technology industry globally, reports that Salesforce fired more than 9,000 employees last season, including 8,000 in January 2023 and 1,000 in November 2022.

Although this season’s layoffs are being framed more as restructuring rather than as a result of over hiring efforts, there may still be some security within the industry, even if workers lose their jobs.

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