Tech and biotech layoffs jolt Bay Area with hundreds of lost jobs

Three tech companies and one biotech firm have revealed plans to slash hundreds more jobs in the Bay Area, a grim reminder the cutbacks in the region’s advanced tech and life sciences sectors have yet to abate.

Ominously, the Bay Area’s tech layoffs in the Bay Area might worsen dramatically, depending on the local impact of thousands of worldwide job cuts disclosed by two top companies of Silicon Valley — Cisco Systems and Intel.

In the most recent spate of job cut cuts, tech firms AppLovin, Fastly and Velo3D, and biotech firm Grail have disclosed separate decisions to chop 334 jobs in the Bay Area, according to official WARN letters that the companies sent to the state Employment Development Department.

Over the past two years, tech companies have revealed plans to chop more than 45,700 Bay Area jobs, this news organization’s review of hundreds of WARN notices filed with the EDD during that time.

Here are some details for the most recent layoff plans by tech or biotech firms in the Bay Area:

— AppLovin, a software firm, 61 job cuts in Palo Alto, which occurred on Aug. 15.

— Fastly, a cloud services company, 52 layoffs in San Francisco. The scheduled date is Oct. 11.

— Velo3D, a 3D printing firm, 42 staff cutbacks in Fremont. The layoffs are expected to occur Oct. 8.

— Grail, a biotech company, 179 job cuts in Menlo Park. The reductions are scheduled for Oct. 14.

The respective employers stated in the EDD filing that all the layoffs were permanent.

To be sure, these job cuts pose painful impacts for the workers affected.

Larger tech cuts loom, however.

Santa Clara-based Intel revealed plans on Aug. 1 to chop 15,000 jobs worldwide as the chip leviathan scrambles to deploy more resources into the artificial intelligence sector.

San Jose-based Cisco disclosed on Aug. 14 its intentions to cut 7% of its workforce. Based on the most recent estimates for the networking behemoth’s global staffing, this could equate to 5,900 lost jobs.

The local effects of these cutbacks have yet to be officially revealed. However, prior layoff events that Intel and Cisco orchestrated have resulted in Bay Area staffing reductions.

The Bay Area has managed to add jobs over the past one-year period despite the region’s struggling tech industry.

During the 12 months that ended in July, tech companies have chopped a net total of 16,000 jobs in the region, according to a Beacon Economics estimate derived from the EDD seasonally adjusted figures.

Yet over the same one-year period ending in July, employers in the Bay Area added 32,300 jobs, the EDD reported.

The tech industry’s struggles contrast sharply with the sector’s typical role as one of the reliable — and for numerous recent years, primary — engines of the Bay Area’s growth for a half-century.

Originally Published: August 19, 2024 at 1:00 p.m.