Two San Francisco tech companies, Upwork and Unity, said they would make cuts to their workforces, while Wells Fargo revealed in a state filing that it had laid off several dozen employees in San Francisco.
Unity, a video game and 3D software company, is laying off about 600 people, or 8% of its workforce, in the third round of cuts dating to last year, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The company did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment, but rounds of layoffs started after the company’s $4.4 billion acquisition of tech firm IronSource, which The Chronicle reported had created duplicative jobs.
In a blog post, Upwork President and CEO Hayden Brown said “we are reducing our workforce by approximately 15% of full-time employees, or 137 roles. We are also eliminating a number of hybrid workforce (independent team member) positions.”
The company operates a website that connects freelancers with people who need their services.
Brown pointed to larger economic forces that she said made the changes necessary.
“We entered this year with an expectation for how our business would fare in this climate, and in the first quarter of 2023, we saw greater-than-expected headwinds, primarily as a result of Enterprise and larger customers further reducing budgets and deferring hiring plans,” she wrote.
Brown also said that Eric Gilpin, the company’s chief sales officer, would be stepping down from his post. He will stay on in an advisory role through the end of the quarter.
“In this business, we lead with our heads and our hearts. I see this every day, and I know you will join me in treating all of our colleagues impacted by these changes with the dignity, respect, and compassion they deserve. We have approached the transition support we’re offering our team members with that guiding principle in mind,” Brown said.
“We have approached the transition support we’re offering our team members with that guiding principle in mind,” Brown wrote, without providing details on severance or any continued health care benefits.
Separately, Wells Fargo told the state Employment Development Department in a filing it had laid off 52 people across its San Francisco locations on Market, California and Montgomery streets, effective April 18.
The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment about why the cuts were made and what jobs might be affected.
The EDD did not immediately provide Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notifications, the legally required notices companies making layoffs of a certain size must provide to employees and the state that sometimes break down which jobs are affected by a layoff and where they are based.
Reach Chase DiFeliciantonio: chase.difeliciantonio@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @ChaseDiFelice
Source: sfchronicle.com
