2 Major Career Companies Are Laying Off 1,300 Employees: 'AI Is Changing the World' The job cuts at Indeed and Glassdoor mainly impact U.S. roles on teams such as research and development.
By Sherin Shibu Edited by Melissa Malamut
Key Takeaways
- Indeed and Glassdoor are laying off 1,300 workers as parent company Recruit Holdings adapts to AI.
- The layoffs impact U.S. roles in people operations, sustainability, and research.
- The job cuts were revealed in a leaked memo that Recruit CEO Hisayuki “Deko” Idekoba sent to staff this week.
Recruit Holdings, the parent company of career sites Indeed and Glassdoor, is laying off 1,300 employees across the two sites.
The job cuts represent about 6% of Recruit's overall global workforce and will especially impact U.S. employees working on the research and development, people operations, and sustainability teams, per CBS.
The news was announced in a leaked internal email, viewed by TechCrunch, which Recruit CEO Hisayuki "Deko" Idekoba sent to staff on Thursday.
Idekoba, 50, wrote in the email that the company was restructuring amid a broader AI shift. Citing internal data, he stated that AI helps people find a job every 2.2 seconds, and that the company is working on "simplifying hiring by building a better job seeker and employer experience using AI."
"AI is changing the world, and we must adapt by ensuring our product delivers truly great experiences," Idekoba wrote in the memo.
Hisayuki Idekoba, president and chief executive officer of Recruit Holdings. Photographer: Shoko Takayasu/Bloomberg via Getty Images
The restructuring also impacts C-suite executives at Recruit. Per the memo, Glassdoor CEO Christian Sutherland-Wong will leave his position on October 1 after a decade with the company. Indeed's Chief People and Sustainability Officer, LaFawn Davis, is also departing the firm.
Idekoba has long-standing ties to Indeed. He led Recruit's acquisition of the company for a reported $750 million to $1 billion in 2012. He was also deeply involved with Glassdoor, heading Recruit's acquisition of the company in 2018 for $1.2 billion.
Idekoba served as Indeed's CEO from 2013 to 2019, and currently lives in Austin, where Indeed is based, per Bloomberg. He was appointed CEO of Recruit in 2021. In June, he took on the additional responsibility of returning to Indeed as president and CEO.
"We're in a once-in-a-generation moment when technology can really change lives," Idekoba said in a June press release. "Hiring is still too slow and too hard, and we're using AI to make it simple and more personal — for both job seekers and employers."
Other companies have also restructured due to AI. For example, Morgan Stanley cut 2,000 employees in March, with a source stating that some were let go because AI had automated their roles at the bank. In May, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said that the company used AI to replace hundreds of employees in its human resources department.
Career sites are also feeling the crunch of competition from behemoths like LinkedIn, which has more than one billion users. Increased competition and declining revenue led CareerBuilder + Monster to file for bankruptcy last month.
