Indeed, a company that assists individuals in finding employment has decided to fire 2,200 of its own employees. The CEO, Chris Hyams, announced the layoff, which amounts to 15% of the company's workforce, in an all-hands meeting. As a result, these employees will now need to embark on their own job search.

In a blog post, Hyams provided further details on the reasoning behind this decision. He stated that the job market is predicted to cool down further, and since Indeed earns revenue from companies sponsoring job listings, this decrease in the job market has impacted their business. 

Hyams shared that sponsored job volumes had decreased by 33% compared to the previous year's quarter, and total job openings had decreased by 3.5%. “As we shared at the last Quarterly Update meeting, it is clear the job market will continue to cool after the recent post-COVID boom. It is becoming increasingly likely that HR Tech revenue will decline in FY2023 and potentially again in FY2024,” read the blog post.

“Last quarter, US total job openings were down 3.5% year over year, while sponsored job volumes were down 33%. In the US, we are expecting job openings will likely decrease to pre-pandemic levels of about 7.5 million, or even lower over the next two to three years,” he added. 

The CEO has decided to reduce his own base pay by 25%. Within an hour of the announcement, employees were informed about their job status through an email. The email's subject line was either "Your Position Has Been Impacted" or "Your Position Has Not Been Impacted." However, employees in the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Japan may still be uncertain about their job status due to local regulations.

Indeed is providing a range of benefits to employees who have been impacted by the layoffs. These include at least 16 weeks of base salary pay, compensation for accrued paid time off, a cash payout for restricted stock units that have not vested yet, and access to career placement and mental health services. 

In the US, affected employees can avail of four months of health insurance coverage via COBRA. They can also keep their work laptops, but access to Indeed business systems will be immediately disconnected. However, access to Slack, email, and Workday will not be immediately affected to allow employees to say goodbye to their colleagues and remove personal materials from their laptops before they are reset remotely.

According to Hyams, the layoffs are affecting almost every team, function, level, and region within the company. To ensure that the layoffs did not have a disproportionate impact on underrepresented minorities in the United States, the company sought guidance from its human resources, legal, and diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB+) teams.

Recent layoffs have been a significant source of disruption in the technology industry. Amazon conducted its second significant round of layoffs this week, impacting an additional 9,000 employees on top of the 18,000 people who were already affected by previous layoffs. Similarly, Meta announced another massive round of layoffs last week, which will result in the elimination of 10,000 jobs. This is despite the company already having cut 11,000 roles in November.