Wayfair Is Laying Off About 5% Of Its Workforce

More layoffs are here, even in the face of the latest super-duper jobs number that we swear doesn’t include people taking on their 2nd or 3rd jobs just to make ends meet and catch up with inflation. 

Wayfair has just become the latest in a long line of companies to pare back its workforce, announcing this morning that it was going to cutting its labor by about 5%. 

In a Form 8-K filed on Friday morning, the online retailer discussed the layoffs, amidst other cost cutting measures. Wayfair “announced a workforce reduction involving approximately 870 employees in connection with its previously announced plans to manage operating expenses and realign investment priorities.”

The filing continued: “This reduction represents approximately 5% of our global workforce and approximately 10% of our corporate team. Concurrently, the Company is in the process of making substantial reductions in its third party labor costs.

The company said it was going to take “between approximately $30 million and $40 million of costs” in Q3 2022 as a result of the layoffs. 

These layoffs come a year after reports that Amazon was planning with a premium service that lets customers opt to have furniture or appliances assembled as soon they arrive at their homes.

Recall, we wrote a piece just days ago helping our readers visualize all of the latest major layoffs at U.S. corporations. We noted that in June 2022, Insight Global found that 78% of American workers fear they will lose their job in the next recession. Additionally, 56% said they aren’t financially prepared, and 54% said they would take a pay cut to avoid being laid off.

In this infographic, Visual Capitalist’s Marcus Lu visualizes major layoffs announced in 2022 by publicly-traded U.S. corporations.

Note: Due to gaps in reporting, as well as the very large number of U.S. corporations, this list may not be comprehensive.

An Emerging Trend

Layoffs have surged considerably since April of this year. See the table below for high-profile instances of mass layoffs.

Layoffs are expected to continue throughout the rest of this year, as metrics like consumer sentiment enter a decline. Rising interest rates, which make it more expensive for businesses to borrow money, are also having a negative impact on growth.

In fact just a few days ago, trading platform Robinhood announced it was letting go 23% of its staff. After accounting for its previous layoffs in April (9% of the workforce), it’s fair to estimate that this latest round will impact nearly 800 people.