Bay Area Tech Layoffs Continue Into February As Several Firms let Hundreds More Let Go

Mass layoffs struck the Bay Area once again this week after a high number of jobs lost during January, with hundreds more workers being let go from multiple tech companies.

San Francisco and the Bay Area, still reeling after tens of thousands of job cuts in 2022 and 2023 respectively, looked forward to a better 2024, with less job cuts, a better economy, and new growth industries such as AI helping revitalize the area. However, a little more than a month into the new year, and 2024 is currently on pace to be just as bad as previous years in the Bay area. Multiple tech companies have already announced the firings of thousands of employees, with some companies getting rid of close to 2,000 employees in a single day. It also bled outside the tech sector, as Levi Strauss announced between 10-15% of their workforce, mostly in San Francisco, are to be fired this year.

On Tuesday, less than a week after tech firm Okta let go of 7% of their staff in San Francisco, the online form-filler company DocuSign announced they would be laying off around 6% of their workforce, or 400 people in total. According to the company, lower than expected earnings in the 4th quarter of 2023, as well as continued poor performance overall, forced them to restructure the company, resulting in hundreds of jobs being lost. For DocuSign, this is the third major layoff in less than two years, with 670 workers being cut in September 2022 and a further 700 being let go in February 2023 because of a need to become smaller following overhiring during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I’m writing to share that we have made the difficult decision to reduce our workforce by approximately six percent, impacting approximately 400 employees,” said CEO Allan Thygesen in an e-mail to staff on Tuesday. “This is a painful decision, and it is not one I, the leadership team or the board make lightly. Of course, I am most concerned for our colleagues who will be leaving, but I am also aware that layoffs are disruptive and hard on company culture, especially when they happen more than once. This is the second company-wide action in my time at DocuSign. I am deeply sorry that we have to do this again.”

Other tech layoffs

While not based in San Francisco, Santa Monica-based Snap cut 10% of their over 5,000 person workforce on Tuesday, resulting in a little more than 500 workers being let go. While many of the layoffs would be in Santa Monica, many would also be Bay Area based. The Snap layoffs come only 5 months after the last major layoffs at the company, when 170 people were let go.

“We are reorganizing our team to reduce hierarchy and promote in-person collaboration,” said a spokesperson for Snap, the parent company of social media site Snapchat. “We are focused on supporting our departing team members and we are very grateful for their hard work and many contributions to Snap.”

Experts told the Globe on Wednesday that while layoffs are happening everywhere because of the post 4th quarter shock in companies restructuring and reevaluating things for 2024, San Francisco and the rest of the area continue to be pommeled more than most.

“Yeah, this isn’t exclusively a San Francisco problem,” explained Julie Ochs, a San Jose-based headhunter and hiring specialist, to the Globe on Wednesday. “But other companies that had recent layoffs don’t have the same excuses. Like the recent LA Times cuts. That was largely mismanagement and them not figuring out a more online-centric presence. Or the NASA JPL cuts announced today. Delayed funding for NASA caused a Mars mission to go on the backburner for awhile while focus was put on that upcoming mission to land people on the moon again. Tech firms are having the same excuses. You know, workers don’t want to work in a dangerous city like San Francisco anymore. It’s too expensive. They overhired during the pandemic. They need to restructure because not as many people are using their product. And so many more.

“Sadly, this isn’t over either. Tech companies are still looking at a weaker 2024, so more tech industry cuts are on the horizon, which isn’t good for San Francisco and Silicon Valley.”

More tech industry layoffs are expected to be announced soon.