Low-code software company Airtable has announced its second round of layoffs in the past nine months, as approximately 237 employees, or about 27% of the company, will be let go. The decision to downsize is part of Airtable’s strategy to focus on securing large enterprise clients and gaining control over spending. CEO Howie Liu explained in an interview with Forbes that these layoffs follow a previous round of job cuts in December 2022, when 254 employees were laid off.
According to Liu, Airtable will become cash-flow positive after this round of layoffs. He attributed the need for downsizing to a decline in business following a period of rapid growth during the pandemic. Airtable, a cloud-based relational database that resembles a spreadsheet, is used by non-technical workers to analyze data and collaborate on projects.
The layoffs will have an impact across Airtable’s six global offices, with the largest number of layoffs expected in the product and sales teams. As of now, Airtable has not responded to requests for comment.
Layoffs in the Tech Sector
The tech industry has experienced a wave of job cuts in 2023, with major companies like Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft laying off tens of thousands of employees or implementing multiple rounds of layoffs. While the pace of layoffs has slowed down in the second half of the year, Google’s parent company, Alphabet, recently announced the departure of hundreds of employees from its recruiting team. This comes after Alphabet already laid off 12,000 employees in January of this year.
However, there are also signs of new job opportunities in areas like generative AI. Companies that previously downsized their workforce, such as Salesforce, are now planning to hire new employees. Salesforce, which had laid off 8,000 workers in January, announced its intention to hire around 3,300 employees, including some former staff members. The new hires will be distributed among sales, engineering, and the team responsible for developing the Data Cloud.
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