Pinterest Plans To Lay Off 150 More Employees After December Layoffs

Pinterest is planning to lay off more of its employees.

The popular social media platform recently confirmed it is laying off more than a hundred of its employees as part of its efforts to cut back costs following its rapid expansion during the initial onset of the COVID-19 lockdowns.

Pinterest laid off an undisclosed amount of employees from its recruiting team in Dec. 2022 and slowed its hiring for the rest of that year due to an unstable digital-ad market, per Marketwatch.

Pinterest Feb. 2023 Layoffs Details

Pinterest spokeswoman Meredith Klein confirmed that the company is indeed laying off some of its employees across all of its teams, though not all would be affected to the same degree, per Bloomberg. Although the spokeswoman didn't mention how many of Pinterest's employees will be let go soon, a person familiar with the company stated that Pinterest plans to lay off 150 of its employees.

Bloomberg's source asked not to be named as Pinterest has yet to officially announce how many of its employees will be affected by the upcoming layoffs.

According to the spokeswoman's statement, the layoffs are part of the company's "organizational changes" that would further set it up to deliver against its priorities and long-term strategy. They also said that Pinterest is committed to supporting the 150 employees that would be affected by its layoffs with separation packages, benefits, and other services.

This new set of layoffs follows Pinterest's earlier layoffs in December 2022, when the company laid off an undisclosed number of its employees as it had less need for hiring support, forcing it to reduce the size of its recruiting team.

Pinterest is the latest tech company to cut costs in a time defined by the ongoing recession and economic downturn due to rising inflation. It is joining the likes of PayPal, which is reportedly laying off 2,000 of its employees over the next few weeks, while popular e-commerce platform Amazon is firing 18,000 employees to keep up with the ongoing economic downturn and recession.

Microsoft is not spared, either, with the company announcing it is firing 10,000 employees for the same reasons.

The Verge, in an earlier report, said that Google is also letting go of 12,000 of its employees due to inflation and the economic downturn.

Is There Another Reason?

However, Pinterest seems like it has other reasons to fire its employees. The Verge reported that the fact that it is reducing its employees further so soon after its December 2022 layoffs is concerning.

Unfortunately, the company didn't disclose any further details about its upcoming layoffs aside from the reason behind it. However, the company could give the public a better picture of what's happening within the company on Feb. 6, when it presents its Q4 financial report.

Interestingly, the company recently became the target of activist investors from Elliot Management, with one of the firm's managers being added to Pinterest's company board.