With AI on the rise, interest rates high and some industries in flux, several companies with operations in Atlanta have said they are cutting workers.
While the overall economy has not shown signs of a recession, Atlanta-based NCR Voyix, California-based Intuit and CNN said Wednesday they are laying off employees, although none of them provided details of the impact here.
David Wilkinson, CEO of NCR Voyix — a digital commerce company created in a corporate division from NCR’s automated teller machine business — made the announcement in an email to staff that was later posted on the company’s website.
“We are taking the difficult step to reduce our employee head count,” he wrote. “The steps we take now will help us streamline our organization, with an enhanced focus on profitable growth.”
While not offering specifics, Wilkinson wrote that the aim is to prepare the company for the future.
“This was not an easy decision, and it affects team members who have contributed to our business,” he wrote. “However, this will enable us to move forward with our long-term strategy of becoming a focused platform software and services company.”
A company spokeswoman declined to spell out what that means in Atlanta.
Separately, Intuit said it is slashing its workforce by about 10% as it reorganizes to take advantage of recent advances in artificial intelligence.
Intuit, which sells tax preparation and financial software, said it was laying off 1,800 employees, as it moves more aggressively to make artificial intelligence part of its products and services. The company said that shift will lead to hiring at least that many more employees in the next fiscal year.
In 2021, Intuit bought Atlanta-based Mailchimp. While the company since then has cut some of those employees, it sees Mailchimp and its QuickBooks division as part of a larger plan, a spokeswoman said. “We continue to have a massive opportunity to bring QuickBooks and Mailchimp together to create one growth platform around the world, and fuel midmarket customers’ success with our offerings. Mailchimp is critical to this strategy.”
In an email to employees, Intuit CEO Sasan Goodarzi said more than 1,000 of the layoffs were employees who were not meeting the company’s elevated expectations. About 300 other positions are being eliminated “to streamline work and reallocate resources toward key growth areas,” he said in his email to staff, according to The Associated Press.
“The era of AI is one of the most significant technology shifts of our lifetime,” Goodarzi said. “Companies that aren’t prepared to take advantage of this AI revolution will fall behind and, over time, will no longer exist.”
Intuit, which also owns TurboTax, will also close two offices — one in Idaho, one in Edmonton, Canada, officials said.
A spokeswoman declined to provide employment numbers for Atlanta, but said in a statement that the company wants to see its presence grow.
“It’s a critical strategic site with top, diverse technical talent,” the statement said. “We are investing in sites where teams of employees have accountability for critical technology capabilities and key portions of our product portfolio. We will actively seek to grow head count in these sites.”
Tech layoffs do not always signal something wider.
Early 2023 also saw high-profile cuts of Atlanta workers in tech businesses that stirred worries about a broader downturn, yet the overall Georgia economy continued to expand through the year.
This time, however, the job cuts come after more than a year of high interest rates that raise the cost of borrowing and investment for consumers and companies alike. Those rates are the result of the Federal Reserve lifting the benchmark rate during the past two years — and holding it there.
The Fed’s efforts were intended to slow growth and inflation, and they did both to an extent. The interest rate hikes haven’t sliced inflation quite to the Fed’s preferred level of 2% a year and they haven’t flipped the economy into recession — at least not yet.
In testimony to Congress on Tuesday, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the weakening labor market is now as much of a risk to the economy as high inflation.
Metro Atlanta’s unemployment rate last month rose to 3.4% — up from 2.8% in May.
CNN is cutting about 100 jobs and restructuring its news operations, part of its ongoing efforts to pump up its digital offerings as the viewership of cable news stagnates. The changes were first reported by The Hollywood Reporter based on a memo sent to staff by Mark Thompson, CNN’s CEO.
The company has about 3,500 employees, fewer than 1,000 of them based in Atlanta.
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