By Michael Elkins
Palantir Technologies (NYSE:PLTR) confirmed Monday that the data analysis firm is cutting about 2% of its workforce as layoffs continue to hammer the tech industry.
“We believe our company is at an inflection point and to continue to evolve, we are making the tough choice of reducing teams in several areas,” the company said in an emailed statement. “While less than 2% of our workforce is impacted by these changes, these are incredibly painful decisions but the right ones for the company’s future.”
The reduction in headcount comes after Chief Executive Officer Alex Karp said at the World Economic Forum in January that the company planned to increase headcount this year even as it scrutinized expenses. Last August, Palantir said it was significantly expanding its hiring in 2022 to help meet ambitious sales goals, setting itself apart from other tech companies that were taking steps to cool recruiting.
The layoffs will impact roughly 75 people based on the company’s latest SEC report in December, which showed it had 3,838 employees.
Palantir is the latest tech company to announce layoffs as the industry reckons with a slowdown following over a decade of growth. Twilio (NYSE:TWLO), Dell Technologies Inc (NYSE:DELL), Zoom Video Communications Inc (NASDAQ:ZM) and eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) disclosed significant cuts to their workforce this month. In January, Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) revealed plans to lay off more than 12,000 workers, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) announced plans to cut 10,000 employees and Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) said it planned to cut 7,000 jobs.
Shares of PLTR are up 0.06% in mid-day trading on Monday.