Big Tech Layoffs Continue As DoorDash Cuts 1,250 Jobs

In today's early morning hours, DoorDash CEO Tony Xu announced that the food delivery service is reducing its corporate workforce by 1,250 people. The November 30 message from Xu to DoorDash personnel states that the payroll deductions come despite the fact that DoorDash "remains strong and continues to grow." Xu said that DoorDash, after overtly rigorous team growth during the pandemic, saw quickly mounting operating expenses post-COVID. High personnel costs after padding up the workforce during the pandemic are a common denominator in the layoffs sweeping across various corporations.

The CEO added that his company is "not immune" to the current economical climate and challenges, remarking that the exponential growth of the pandemic era has slowed — and that operating expenses would overpass profit if measures weren't taken. Efforts to reduce spending outside of employee livelihoods have reportedly already been taken, stated Xu.

DoorDash will help the laid off workers with career transition and recruitment, according to the statement. Impacted employees are receiving just over four months of severance pay, in addition to the quarterly employee stock vest in February. Health insurance and benefits are set to continue through the end of March, Xu's memo says, and COBRA coverage will be available for 18 months thereafter. For international visa-holding employees, the termination date was set to March 1 of next year to give adequate time for job hunting and relocation.

While it's certainly no consolation, the DoorDash employees finding themselves unemployed in the thick of the holiday season aren't alone. The downsizing bug was also caught by Meta, Amazon, Twitter, Lyft, HP — the layoff numbers of several paling DoorDash's cuts in comparison. Amazon is letting go an estimated 10,000 employees across multiple departments, including Alexa which has been a struggling branch of Amazon for some time. Meta confirmed sweeping reductions earlier this month, with the totals there amounting to 13% of the tech giant's payroll (via Wired).

Tech layoffs can largely be blamed on the slowing momentum in consumer spending power, fear of a pending recession, and continued inflation. Workforce downsizing at Twitter is decisively less structured — with all the organization of a shaken jar of hornets, it seems — but among the most recent news there is Twitter dismissing thousands of freelancers and contractors after already slashing an estimated 4,000 from its regular payroll.