Three technology companies and a biotech firm have announced plans to cut hundreds more jobs in the Bay Area, a grim reminder that cuts in the region’s high-tech and life sciences sectors have yet to let up.
Ominously, the number of layoffs in the Bay Area’s tech industry could worsen dramatically, depending on the local impact of the thousands of layoffs worldwide announced by two Silicon Valley pillars, Cisco Systems and Intel.
In the latest wave of layoffs, technology companies AppLovin, Fastly and Velo3D and biotechnology company Grail each independently announced the decision to cut 334 jobs in the Bay Area, according to official WARN letters the companies sent to the state Department of Employment Development.
In 2022, 2023 and so far in 2024, technology companies have announced plans to cut more than 45,700 jobs in the Bay Area, according to a review of hundreds of WARN notices filed with the EDD during that period.
Here are some details on recent layoff plans at Bay Area technology or biotech companies:
– Software company AppLovin cut 61 jobs in Palo Alto on August 15.
– Fastly, a cloud services provider, 52 layoffs in San Francisco. The planned date is October 11.
— Velo3D, a 3D printing company, is cutting 42 employees in Fremont. The layoffs are scheduled to take place on October 8.
— Grail, a biotechnology company, is cutting 179 jobs in Menlo Park. The layoffs are scheduled for October 14.
The respective employers stated in the EDD notification that all dismissals were permanent.
Of course, these job cuts have painful consequences for the employees affected.
However, major cuts are looming in the technology sector.
Santa Clara-based Intel announced plans on August 1 to cut 15,000 jobs worldwide as the chip giant seeks to put more resources into artificial intelligence.
San Jose-based Cisco announced on August 14 that it plans to cut 7% of its workforce. According to the latest estimates for the networking giant’s global workforce, this could equate to a loss of 5,900 jobs.
The local impact of these cuts has yet to be officially announced, but previous layoffs orchestrated by Intel and Cisco have resulted in job cuts in the Bay Area.
The Bay Area has succeeded in creating jobs over the past year despite, not because of, the region’s technology industry.
In the 12 months through July, technology companies in the region cut a total of 16,000 net jobs, according to an estimate by Beacon Economics based on seasonally adjusted figures from the EDD.
But during the same period through July, employers in the Bay Area created 32,300 new jobs, the EDD reported.
The technology industry’s problems stand in stark contrast to the sector’s typical role for half a century as one of the Bay Area’s reliable—and in recent years, most important—engines of growth.
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