Shopify Shares Slump After Reports Of Major Layoffs

This morning sees yet another nail in the coffin of the “yeah but at least we have a strong labor market” narrative in the US as The Wall Street Journal reports that, according to an internal memo, Shopify is cutting roughly 1,000 workers, or 10% of its global workforce.

Founder and CEO Tobi Lütke said he had expected that surging e-commerce sales growth would last past the Covid-19 pandemic’s ebb.

“It’s now clear that bet didn’t pay off,” said Mr. Lütke in the letter, which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

“Ultimately, placing this bet was my call to make and I got this wrong.”

The firm reports its quarterly earnings tomorrow.

SHOP shares are down over 11% in the pre-market…

Shopify’s job cuts are among the largest so far in a wave of layoffs and hiring freezes that is washing over technology companies.

So when does this 10% workforce layoff start to hit the BLS’ payrolls data?

Source: Bloomberg

Maybe the labor market is not so strong after all – when do we see the “million layoffs or more” that BofA has been worrying about.