Austin-based Indeed.com cutting about 1,000 jobs, or roughly 8% of its global workforce

Posted by Admin May 13, 2024 Jobs

Austin-based Indeed.com is laying off about 1,000 people, or about 8% of the online job-search site’s global workforce, CEO Chris Hyams announced in a letter to employees Monday.

Asked how the cuts might affect Indeed’s Austin headcount, a spokesman said the company would not be commenting beyond Hyams’ letter. Indeed.com — one of the city’s largest tech firms — reported last summer that it employed 2,800 people in Austin, down about 100 employees from a year earlier. The company declined to provide an updated head count Monday.

“I am sad to share the news that we have made the difficult decision to reduce our headcount through a layoff,” Hyams said in the letter. “Unlike last year, where our reduction was driven by cost savings, we are taking this action because we need to simplify our organization to make it easier and faster for us to make decisions, and help us to more effectively grow revenue and hires.”

“As difficult as these changes are, our new structure will help us to simplify and work more effectively as one team, reignite growth in revenue, and drive toward our 2030 goal to help 100 million people get jobs.”

More: Job-search site Indeed makes the move to its new downtown Austin headquarters

In March 2023, Indeed announced it was cutting 2,200 jobs, or about 15% of its global workforce. The company, which makes money through sponsored job postings, cited a cooldown in the overall job market and demand for its technology.

More: Austin-based job site Indeed announces 2,200 layoffs worldwide

For the latest round of job cuts, Hyams said, “While the reductions touch many groups and regions, they are not across the board like last year; rather they are mostly concentrated in the U.S. and are more focused on R&D (research and development) and some Go-to-Market teams.”

Hyams said the company’s leadership worked with its human resources, legal, and diversity, equity and inclusion teams “to ensure objectivity and equity in the decision-making process.”

“The final selections have had no measurably disproportionate impact on women and under-represented genders or the under-represented minority population in the U.S.,” Hyams said.

He added: “Within the hour, employees outside of Ireland, the UK, and Australia will hear whether or not you have been impacted by this decision. If you are impacted, your email will include a link to the details of your separation package, which will vary by region. Package amounts have been increased for most employees over last year, and include severance, healthcare payment where applicable, and outplacement services, among others.”

Last year, Hyams said, the company faced “a global slowdown in hiring, which led to multiple consecutive quarters of revenue loss. We reduced our headcount, instituted multiple cost-saving measures, and instilled investment discipline across the company. These measures worked, and we are now operating with stable profitability.

More: Accenture to lay off hundreds in second round of Austin-area cuts announced since May

“However, while the global economy has improved in several areas over the past year, we are not yet set up for sustainable growth,” Hyams wrote. “Despite our efforts so far, our organization is still too complex, we still have significant duplication of effort and too many organizational layers that slow down decision-making. We have been working to simplify every aspect of our business, but without meaningful change, we can’t get where we need to go.”

He said the company will be “significantly restructuring” its R&D team and reducing layers of management, and taking other measures designed to “simplify decision-making and create clarity.”

Indeed executives have scheduled a global town hall meeting for employees Tuesday, at which Hyams said there will be more information about the overall organizational structure, to be followed by other meetings with company leaders to answer employees’ questions.

“Our work is driven by the deep understanding of just how important a job is in a person’s life,” Hyams wrote. “We all know what it means to lose that. For those of you who are leaving, this is incredibly hard. We are committed to bringing as much support to you as possible in the days and weeks ahead. You helped millions of people get jobs, and helped Indeed to be a better place.”