With the end of the first quarter of the 2009 almost here, even the strongest companies companies are making last-minute layoffs to shave costs. Today, layoffs were announced across the tech sector, from IBM to Google to Amazon. The biggest layoffs came from IBM, where 5,000 people are losing their jobs in the U.S.. Amazon cut 210 people at three distribution centers in Nevada, Indiana, and Pennsylvania. Google also announced layoffs of 200 people from sales and marketing (so far, engineers have been spared). In all three cases, the job cuts amounted to roughly one percent of each company’s global workforce. The New York Times also announced a 5 percent cut of its newsroom business operations, or 100 people.
It is not as if the payroll reductions will help save the quarter or even have a material impact on it. But the companies can point to the measures during their conference calls with investors and analysts and project the savings going forward.
We’ve added the job cuts to our Layoff Tracker. To see who is hiring, check out our CrunchBoard.
| Company | Date | Location | # | % | Source |
| Amazon | March 26, 2009 | Red Rock, Nev.; Munster, Ind.; and Chambersburg, Pa. | 210 | 1% | NYT |
| The New York Times | March 26, 2009 | New York, NY | 100 | 5% | NYT |
| March 26, 2009 | Mountain View, CA | 200 | 1% | NYT |
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| IBM | March 26, 2009 | USA | 5,000 | 1% | LA Times |
| Imeem | March 25, 2009 | San Francisco, CA | 6 | 4% | TechCrunch |
Seattle, WA
San Diego, CA
Menlo Park, CA
Boston, MA
Berlin, Germany
San Francisco
