Job cuts within the tech and biotech industry shake up Bay Area: Two green energy firms stumble

Technology and biotechnology firms have cut a whole bunch more jobs within the Bay Area; the most recent cuts affect employees at two green energy firms and a long-standing life sciences company.

The recent waves of layoffs raise questions on when the waves of job cuts within the Bay Area's tech and biotech sectors that began in 2022 will finally subside.

ChargePoint, an electrical vehicle charging station company, EnerVenue, a maker of advanced batteries, and BioMarin Pharmaceutical are among the many technology and biotechnology firms which have announced plans for job cuts, in keeping with official WARN notices filed with the state Department of Employment Development.

In 2022, 2023 and 2024, including the most recent cuts, Bay Area tech firms have cut greater than 46,200 jobs, in keeping with this news organization's review of a whole bunch of WARN letters filed with the EDD.

Here are the small print of the recent waves of layoffs at Bay Area tech and biotech firms:

— BioMarin Pharmaceutical, 147 job cuts in San Rafael, Novato and Petaluma. Layoffs are scheduled for November 1.

— EnerVenue, 65 job cuts in Fremont. The estimated date for job cuts is November 8.

— ChargePoint, shedding 64 employees in Campbell. The cuts are set to take effect on November 4.

— Planet Labs, 1 job cut in San Francisco. The layoff date is October 31.

Certainly, the technology sector has been characterised by boom and bust cycles up to now.

Despite this volatility, the technology industry has arguably turn out to be a very powerful driver of the Bay Area's economy and labor market over the past few many years.

However, the present wave of job cuts within the technology sector, which began in 2022, has seriously stuttered this engine as a catalyst for brand new job creation.

Worse, the technology industry has hampered the region's labor market at a time of change within the industry.

Technology firms have cut jobs in certain business areas as they fight to position themselves for future opportunities in artificial intelligence and green energy.

These are the ten Bay Area tech firms which have cut essentially the most jobs in 2022, 2023 and thus far in 2024. These years mark a time of increased staff cuts within the tech sector within the wake of the coronavirus:

– Meta Platforms, owner of the Facebook app, 5,195 job cuts in Menlo Park, San Francisco, Burlingame, Sunnyvale and Fremont.

– Tesla, 3,652 layoffs in Fremont, Palo Alto and San Mateo.

– Google, 2,507 job cuts in Mountain View, Moffett Field, San Bruno, Palo Alto, Sunnyvale and San Francisco.

– Cisco Systems: 1,807 job cuts in San Jose, San Francisco and Milpitas.

– Broadcom, 1,267 layoffs in Palo Alto.

– Salesforce, 1,202 job cuts in San Francisco.

– Intel: 1,118 job cuts in Santa Clara and San Jose.

– Twitter (now X), 900 layoffs in San Jose and San Francisco.

– PayPal: 772 job cuts in San Jose.

– LinkedIn, 711 layoffs in Sunnyvale, Mountain View and San Francisco.

Despite the struggles of the Bay Area's technology industry, the nine-county region managed so as to add jobs within the last 12 months on record.

In the 12 months through July, 32,300 recent jobs were created within the Bay Area, the EDD reported.

In stark contrast, technology firms cut a net 16,000 jobs within the Bay Area over the 12 months through the tip of July, in keeping with an estimate from Beacon Economics based on seasonally adjusted figures from the EDD.

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