Jack Dorsey's Block conducts 2nd round of layoffs this year
What's the story
Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey's fintech company Block has laid off employees for the second time this year. The decision comes just months after the company cut 40% of its global workforce. According to a Business Insider report, Block informed its employees about the latest round of layoffs through an internal email. The cuts are likely to affect several teams including Customer Ops, Risk Ops, and Learning & Content Operations.
Restructuring plan
Layoffs are part of Block's restructuring strategy
The layoffs are part of Block's broader restructuring strategy, which includes "reducing the number of roles, changing some responsibilities, and shifting some reporting lines."
The exact number of employees affected by this round of layoffs is not clear at the moment.
However, it primarily affects workers in Block's consumer financial services app Cash App and some employees at seller-services business Square.
Severance details
Severance packages being offered to laid-off employees
As part of the layoffs, Block is offering severance packages to its employees. The details of these packages vary by region.
US-based employees affected by this latest round of layoffs will get at least 60 days' pay and a minimum seven weeks' base pay as severance.
They will also get an additional week for every year worked at Block and a one-time payment of $5,000 for transition assistance.
Past layoffs
Block laid off 4,000 employees earlier this year
Notably, these layoffs come just months after Block laid off 4,000 employees from its 10,000-strong workforce.
At the time, Dorsey had said that the company was "not in trouble" and attributed the restructuring to intelligence tools and smaller teams changing how businesses are built.
Following this, Block estimated annualized net cost savings of $800 million to $900 million.
Industry impact
Layoffs across the tech industry
The layoffs at Block are part of a larger trend in the tech industry, with companies such as Amazon, Oracle, Meta, Microsoft, Snap, Atlassian, and Coinbase also announcing workforce reductions.
These cuts are attributed to cost savings measures, reorganizations, and a shift toward AI.
According to layoff tracker Layoffs.fyi, over 142,000 tech jobs have been cut this year across 346 companies.