Salesforce Guts 10% of its Workforce
Although rumors of impending layoffs impacting business software titan Salesforce had circulated for months, CEO Marc Benioff made an official announcement revealing cuts impacting 10% of the company’s staff in a letter to employees dated January 4, 2023. By the day’s end, around 8,000 employees were left without a job.
The reason given for the cuts mirrored that of many other struggling tech firms. Salesforce, like some of its peers, overextended itself and over-hired amid a temporary pandemic-era boom in remote work productivity. At the time of writing, Salesforce staff numbered around 80,000. That’s nearly double the 48,000 workers it had prior to the pandemic.
“As our revenue accelerated through the pandemic, we hired too many people leading into this economic downturn we’re now facing, and I take responsibility for that,” Benioff wrote.
Saleforce’s clients, Benioff added, were, “taking a more measured approach to their purchasing decisions,” amid an uncertain economic outlook.
