'We hired too many people': Salesforce to layoff 10% of employees

Software company Salesforce Inc on Wednesday said it plans to lay off about 10 per cent of its employees as part of a restructuring. The company said it is facing an economic downturn as it hired too many people.

In a letter to employees, Salesforce co-Chief Executive Officer Marc Benioff said: "The environment remains challenging and our customers are taking a more measured approach to their purchasing decisions."

He said as the company's revenue accelerated through the pandemic, it hired too many people leading to this economic downturn it is now facing. "...and I take responsibility for that," he said.

Salesforce had 73,541 employees at the end of January 2022, a 30 per cent jump from 2021, according to Reuters.

With this, Salesforce joined the league of IT companies that have fired thousands of employees to bring down costs.

In November, Meta laid off 11,00 employees as it struggled with rising costs and plummeting ad revenues. The layoff season began with Twitter firing almost 50 per cent of its staff globally. Twitter, Meta, and Amazon together sacked nearly 25,000 employees.