A February wave of layoffs in the tech industry has left many without work amid a looming recession. 

Within the past year, more than 150,000 employees were affected by 2022 tech layoffs, which continued in January with 68,500 job cuts, according to “Who Was Affected by the 2022-2023 Tech Layoffs?,” a report from research firm 365 Data Science. 

In the latest round, tech providers Amazon, DocuSign and Microsoft and payments fintechs Stripe and Zilch shrunk their teams ahead of economic uncertainty.

Detroit-based Ally Financial previously noted that the $191 billion bank potentially would look to the layoff pool for tech talent hires, Chief Executive Jeffrey Brown said during the bank’s fourth-quarter earnings call. 

Apple dismisses third-party contractors

Tech giant Apple laid off 1,000 third-party contractors Tuesday, according to a company release. The cutback comes months after the Cupertino, Calif.-based tech giant promised the contractors that their positions would be safe, according to published reports. 

Affirm slashes 19% of staff

Buy now pay later platform Affirm was among those in the fintech space to make cuts, letting go 19% of its workforce, or 500 employees, as part of a restructuring early this month, according to a statement from Chief Executive Max Levchin on Affirm’s website. 

The San Francisco-based company expects to pay $35 million to $39 million in restructuring costs as it plans to provide a minimum of 15– weeks of severance pay, Levchin wrote in a letter to shareholders earlier this month. 

FIS lays off 2,600

In a move earlier this month, Fidelity National Information Services (FIS) announced that  2,600 workers were laid off as part of industrywide job cuts. 

The cuts affected 2% of the Jacksonville, Fla.-based company’s full-time workforce, including 1,000 contractors. The cuts come as the company looks to save $500 million in costs in the quarters ahead, Chief Executive Stephanie Ferris said during FIS’ fourth-quarter earnings call. 

“In December, we announced that we initiated with the board of directors a comprehensive assessment of the company’s strategy, operations and structure with the goal of positioning FIS to drive stronger results,” Ferris said. “We have moved with the highest sense of urgency and focus to advance a number of strategically important initiatives.” 

FIS declined Bank Automation News request for comment. 

Chipper Cash hit with second round of layoffs

Three months after releasing 12.5% of its workforce, cross-border payment platform Chipper Cash will lay off more than 100 employees, the company announced last week. 

Chipper Cash raised $337.2 million over seven funding rounds, according to Crunchbase, but was negatively impacted by the implosion of its biggest financial backer, crypto company FTX.  

Individuals impacted by layoffs span across numerous business verticals, such as product development, analytics and research, Stefano Pardi, vice president of revenue, said in a release. 

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