PayPal Holdings Inc. and Block Inc. are the two latest tech companies to announce layoffs, saying today that they’re cutting their workforces by 9% and 10%, respectively.

First up was PayPal, with Bloomberg reporting that the layoffs will affect about 2,500 workers. The news of the layoffs was shared in a letter to staff on Tuesday. Chief Executive Officer Alex Chriss wrote that a decision had been made to “rightsize” the company through direct cuts and the elimination of open roles throughout the year.

Chriss said that the decision to cut jobs would allow PayPal to “move with the speed needed to deliver for our customers and drive profitable growth.” Chriss also added that PayPal will “continue to invest in areas of the business we believe will create and accelerate growth.”

The layoffs are not PayPal’s first in recent times. It announced it was laying off 2,000 employees in January 2023. Then-CEO Dan Schulman, who announced his retirement the following month, said at the time that the cuts were part of a “transformation” to address the “challenging macroeconomic environment while continuing to invest to meet our customers’ needs.”

Following in PayPal’s footsteps was Block. Business Insider reported that the company plans to lay off around 1,000 employees, its second round of layoffs in two months.

The layoffs at Block did not come as a surprise, however, as Business Insider had previously reported in November that Block had told employees in a letter that job cuts were on the way. In the letter, CEO Jack Dorsey reportedly told employees that the current level of employees is “not sustainable” as the company’s growth had not matched its number of employees.

Like other companies looking to downsize, Block has also put in place an “absolute cap” on hiring going forward. That cap is that Block is to have no more than 12,000 employees. As of October last year, Block had more than 13,000 employees.

PayPal and Block are not alone in announcing layoffs in January and there will likely be more across the tech industry in the coming months.

Companies that announced layoffs in January include SAP SE, with up to 8,000 roles on Jan. 24; Microsoft Corp. across Activision Blizzard and Xbox, a total of 1,900 employees, on Jan. 25; Google LLC with 1,000 employees on Jan. 16; Salesforce Inc. with 700 people on Jan. 26; and Amazon.com Inc.-owned Twitch with 500 people or 35% of its staff on Jan. 9.

According to the tracking site Layoffs.fyi, 104 tech companies have announced layoffs this year.

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