Social media giant Snap, which operates Snapchat, has announced plans to lay off approximately 10% of its staff. According to CNN, the company disclosed the latest layoff in a regulatory filing on Monday, saying that the move will impact approximately 10% of its global full-time employees. This equates to roughly 500 jobs. Snap also said that the layoff would "reduce hierarchy and promote in-person collaboration".
"We are reorganising our team to reduce hierarchy and promote in-person collaboration," a Snap spokesperson told CNN. "We are focused on supporting our departing team members and we are very grateful for their hard work and many contributions to Snap," they added.
In the regulatory filing, Snap also stated that the cuts were aimed to, "best position our business to execute on our highest priorities, and to ensure we have the capacity to invest incrementally to support our growth over time". In its filing, it said the cuts would be "subject to local law and consultation requirements" in each country, which could extend the process.
The social media giant also stated that it estimates it incur approximately $55 million to $75 million in costs related to the restructuring, primarily consisting of severance expenses. The outlet reported that Snap had some 5,367 full-time employees as of October 2023.
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Notably, this is the second wave of mass redundancies from the social media company, which laid off about 20% of its workers in August 2022. Snap also cut approximately 3% of its staff last year, after it announced it was shuttering its AR Enterprise business.
Mass layoffs have roiled the tech sector since 2022. According to layoffs.fyi, which tracks job losses in the tech sector, there were more than 232,000 job cuts in the industry in 2023. Since the start of the year, some 30,000 workers in the tech sector have also lost their jobs, as per the data.
This year, "tech companies are still trying to correct for their over-hiring during the pandemic surge, given that the high interest-rate environment and tech downturn have both lasted longer than initially expected," Layoffs.fyi founder Roger Lee said, as per Bloomberg.
"This year's layoffs are typically smaller and more targeted than the layoffs a year ago," he continued.
