The list of major companies laying off staff in the new year, including Salesforce, Meta, Microsoft, and BP
6 Februari 2025
3 8 minutes read
Layoffs and other workforce reductions are continuing in 2025, following two years of significant job cuts across tech, media, finance, manufacturing, retail, and energy.
While the reasons for slimming staff vary, the cost-cutting measures are coming amid a backdrop of technological change. In a recent World Economic Forum survey, some 41% of companies worldwide said they expected to reduce their workforces over the next five years because of the rise of artificial intelligence.
Companies such as CNN, Dropbox, and IBM have previously announced job cuts related to AI. Tech jobs in big data, fintech, and AI are meanwhile expected to double by 2030, according to the WEF.
Department store Kohl’s announced on January 28 that it is reducing about 10% of its corporate roles to “increase efficiencies” and “improve profitability for the long-term health and benefit of the business,” a spokesperson told BI.
“Kohl’s reduced approximately 10 percent of the roles that report into its corporate offices,” the spokesperson said. “More than half of the total reduction will come from closing open positions while the remainder of the positions were currently held by our associates.”
Less than 200 existing employees of the company would be impacted, she added.
The retailer has been struggling with declining sales, reporting an 8.8% decline in net sales in the third quarter of 2024.
Its previous CEO, Tom Kingsbury, stepped down on January 15. The company’s board appointed Ashley Buchanan, a retail veteran who had held top jobs in The Michaels Companies, Macy’s, and Walmart, as the new CEO.
CNN plans to cut 200 jobs.
Cable news giant CNN is cutting about 200 television-focused roles as part of a digital pivot. The cuts will amount to about 6% of the company’s workforce.
In a memo sent to staff on January 23, CNN’s CEO Mark Thompson said he aimed to “shift CNN’s gravity towards the platforms and products where the audience themselves are shifting and, by doing that, to secure CNN’s future as one of the world’s greatest news organizations.”
Starbucks is planning layoffs in March.
Starbucks is planning layoffs as part of a corporate restructuring.ANGELA WEISS / AFP via Getty Images
Global coffee chain Starbucks announced it is planning layoffs in March.
In a memo to staff on January 21, Brian Nicoll, the company’s chairman and CEO, said: “We need to meaningfully change how our support teams are organized and how we work,” and as part of that, “we will have job eliminations and smaller support teams moving forward.”
Nicoll said the changes would be communicated to staff by early March.
Stripe is laying off 300 employees.
Stripe is cutting 300 jobs, according to a memo obtained by BI.Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Payments platform Stripe is cutting 300 employees, primarily in product, engineering, and operations, according to a January 20 memo obtained by BI.
Chief People Officer Rob McIntosh said in the memo that the company still planned on growing its head count to about 10,000 employees by the end of the year.
BP slashing 7,700 staff and contractor positions worldwide.
Oil giant BP is cutting thousands of jobs.John Keeble/Getty Images
BP told Business Insider it plans to cut 4,700 staff and 3,000 contractors, amounting to about 5% of its global workforce.
The cuts are part of a program to “simplify and focus” BP that began last year.
“We are strengthening our competitiveness and building in resilience as we lower our costs, drive performance improvement and play to our distinctive capabilities,” the company said.
Meta is cutting 5% of its workforce.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told employees the company is targeting “low-performers,” BI reported on Jan 14.Fabrice COFFRINI/AFP/Getty Images
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently told staff he “decided to raise the bar on performance management” and will act quickly to “move out low-performers,” according to an internal memo seen by BI.
In a post on the company’s internal communications platform, he said Meta will make “more extensive performance-based cuts” in this year’s performance review cycle. Impacted US employees will be notified on February 10, he wrote.
The company has laid off more than 21,000 workers since 2022.
BlackRock is cutting 1% of its workforce.
BlackRock was recently reported to be planning layoffs.Eric Thayer/Reuters
BlackRock told employees it was planning to cut about 200 people of its 21,000-strong workforce, according to Bloomberg.
The reductions are more than offset by some 3,750 workers who were added last year and another 2,000 expected to be added in 2025.
BlackRock’s president, Rob Kapito, and its chief operating officer, Rob Goldstein, said the cuts would help realign the firm’s resources with its strategy, Bloomberg reported.
Bridgewater has cut about 90 staff.
Bridgewater’s layoffs will return its head count to where it was in 2023, a person familiar with the matter said.Bridgewater Associates
Bridgewater Associates cut 7% of its staff in January in an effort to stay lean, a person familiar with the matter told Business Insider.
The layoffs at the world’s largest hedge fund bring its head count back to where it was in 2023, the person said.
The company’s founder, Ray Dalio, said in a 2019 interview that about 30% of new employees were leaving the firm within 18 months.
The Washington Post is cutting 4% of its non-newsroom workforce.
The Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post is conducting layoffs in January.Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
The Washington Post is eliminating less than 100 employees in an effort to cut costs, Reuters reported in January.
A spokesperson told the wire service that the changes would occur across multiple areas of the business and indicated that the cuts wouldn’t affect the newsroom.
“The Washington Post is continuing its transformation to meet the needs of the industry, build a more sustainable future and reach audiences where they are,” the spokesperson said, according to Reuters.
Microsoft is planning an unspecified number of cuts.
Microsoft confirmed that job cuts were planned.NurPhoto/Getty Images
Microsoft is planning job cuts soon, and the company is taking a harder look at underperforming employees as part of the reductions, according to two people familiar with the plans.
A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed cuts but declined to share details on the number of employees being let go.
“At Microsoft we focus on high performance talent,” the spokesperson said. “We are always working on helping people learn and grow. When people are not performing, we take the appropriate action.”
Ally is cutting less than 5% of workers.
Ally is laying off about 500 employees.Ally Bank/Facebook
The digital-financial-services company Ally is laying off roughly 500 of its 11,000 employees, a spokesperson confirmed to BI.
“As we continue to right-size our company, we made the difficult decision to selectively reduce our workforce in some areas, while continuing to hire in our other areas of our business,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson also said the company was offering severance, out-placement support, and the opportunity to apply for openings at Ally.
Ally made a similar level of cuts in October 2023, the Charlotte Observer reported.
Adidas plans to cut up to 500 jobs in Germany.
Despite a strong year, Adidas is planning job cuts.Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Adidas intends to reduce the size of its workforce at its headquarters in Herzogenaurach, Germany, impacting up to 500 jobs, CNBC reported.
If fully executed, it amounts to a reduction of nearly 9% at the company headquarters, which employs about 5,800 employees, according to the Adidas website.
The news comes shortly after the company announced it had outperformed its profit expectations at the end of 2024, touting “better-than-expected” results in the fourth quarter.
“Strong growth across all regions and divisions proves the good job our teams are doing across regions and functions,” CEO Bjørn Gulden said in a press release. “So although we are not yet where we want to be long term, I am very happy with this development which was much better than we had expected.”
In a statement to BI, an Adidas spokesperson said the company had grown “too complex because of our current operating model.”
“To set adidas up for long-term success,” the spokesperson said, “we are now starting to look at how we align our operating model with the reality of how we work. This may have an impact on the organizational structure and number of roles based at our HQ in Herzogenaurach.”
The company said it is not a cost-cutting measure and that it could not confirm concrete numbers.
Salesforce is cutting more than 1,000 jobs
Despite a strong financial performance, Salesforce is cutting staff, Bloomberg reported.Gary Hershorn / Getty Images
Bloomberg reported that Salesforce, a cloud-based customer management software company, will slash more than 1,000 jobs from its nearly 73,000-strong workforce.
Affected employees will be eligible to apply to open internal roles, the outlet reported. The company is currently hiring salespeople focused on the company’s new AI-powered products.
The cuts come despite Salesforce reporting a strong financial performance during its third-quarter earnings in December.
Representatives for Salesforce did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Estée Lauder will cut as many as 7,000 jobs
Estée Lauder is expanding a “Profit Recovery and Growth Plan.”Budrul Chukrut/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Cosmetics giant Estée Lauder said in its second-quarter earnings release that it will cut between 5,800 and 7,000 jobs as the company restructures over the next two years.
The cuts will focus on “rightsizing” certain teams, and it will look to outsource certain services. The company says it expects annual gross benefits of between $0.8 billion and $1.0 billion before tax.
Workday is cutting more than 8% of its workforce
Workday said it’s cutting 8.5% of its workforce and focusing on AI.Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images
Workday, the human-resources software company, said in February that it is cutting 8.5% of its workforce, or around 1,750 employees. The layoffs come as the company focuses more on artificial intelligence.
In a note to employees, CEO Carl Eschenbach said that Workday will focus on hiring in areas related to artificial intelligence and work to expand its global presence.
“The environment we’re operating in today demands a new approach, particularly given our size and scale,” Eschenbach wrote. He said that affected employees will get at least 12 weeks of pay.
Sonos cuts about 200 jobs
Sonos interim CEO Tom Conrad said the company has been pursuing too many projects under a “cloud of half-commitment.”Christoph Dernbach/picture alliance via Getty Images
Sonos, a California-based audio equipment company, said in a February 5 release that it’s cutting about 200 roles.
The announcement came nearly a month after Sonos CEO Patrick Spence stepped down from his position following a disastrous app rollout. The company’s interim CEO Tom Conrad said in the statement that the layoff was part of an effort to create a “simpler organization.”
“One thing I’ve observed first hand is that we’ve become mired in too many layers that have made collaboration and decision-making harder than it needs to be,” Conrad said. “So across the company today we are reorganizing into flatter, smaller, and more focused teams.”
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