#workforcereduction

BlueOval SK is reducing its workforce by 150 positions. This action follows a restructuring of its U.S. battery manufacturing operations. The joint venture between Ford Motor Co. and SK On is dissolving. SK On will now solely own and operate the Tennessee plant. Affected employees will receive regular pay and benefits for 60 days.

https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/money/business/2026/03/06/blueoval-sk-to-layoff-150-workers-tennessee/89024992007/

Block revealed plans to reduce its workforce significantly. The company stated artificial intelligence tools enable a smaller, more effective team. Block shares rose sharply following the news. Conversely, the broader software sector experienced a decline. This market reaction indicates investor approval for tech workforce reductions.

https://www.aol.com/articles/blocks-layoffs-could-3-companies-070500078.html

What chance do the rest of our jobs stand?

Leadership is laser-focused on OPEX cuts, and every signal points to around 15,000 jobs still being on the line. That's the number floating around, the one nobody's refuted, the one we all know is coming for us eventually. Whether it happens next week or next month changes nothing in the end. It's happening. The only things left to figure out is how many rounds, and who's getting cut. Prepare accordingly.

Is it March 10th? Are we really doing this again with the whole "second Tuesday of the month" purge timeline? We literally just went through this in 2024.

Layoffs today, orwide. The new overlords want their money!!

Doosan GridTech recently laid off staff. These layoffs occurred in Bellevue. The company was formed in 2016. Doosan Group acquired 1Energy Systems to create it. This acquisition cost over $10 million.

https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2026/03/05/doosan-gridtech-layoffs-bellevue.html

Alltrna, a Flagship Pioneering-backed biotech, recently laid off 19 employees. This marks the company's third workforce reduction. The decision aims to prepare Alltrna for clinical trials of its tRNA dr-g candidate. After the layoffs, 36 staffers remain at the Cambridge, Mass.-based company. Alltrna focuses on developing tRNA medicines for genetic liver diseases.

https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/alltrna-undergoes-third-layoff-round-entering-clinic-cutting-35-jobs

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-03-05/oracle-layoffs-to-impact-thousands-in-ai-cash-crunch

I hear there are some layoffs today and later this week. Does anyone have info on counts and teams impacted?

By forcing the cost of severance down from "top of house" to the division/unit level Scharf is deliberately incentivizing managers to give unwarranted poor reviews to good people so that they can be fired "for cause" with no severance, no cost to the bank. While callous, cold and calculating, it's perfectly legal.

Scharf knows that Secretary of Treasury Bessent and President Trump are pushing hard to deregulate banking which directly impacts staffing at all banks. By eliminating the CFPB and loosening regulatory oversight, employees whose duties include this funciton are no longer needed because the people they answer to in the government agencies are gone.

WF is removing coordination roles in a way that purposefully avoids the visibility that normally accompanies large layoffs. WF distributes reductions in smaller groups across several sites — for example, eliminating roles in increments of 40 or 45 across different regions over several months. None of these individual events reaches the WARN Act threshold that would require public disclosure. Challenger, Gray & Christmas refers to this as the pattern of "forever layoffs" — ongoing workforce optimization rather than discrete restructuring.

The weakening of worker protection enforcement — reduced CFPB oversight of employment-related financial products, reduced NLRB enforcement capacity, weakened EEOC investigation resources — makes this quiet, distributed layoff approach less legally risky for banks. The institutional deterrent against conducting large-scale reductions in ways that might constitute systematic discrimination or age-based targeting has weakened alongside the broader regulatory rollback.

Perrigo plans to reduce its workforce. The pharmaceutical company expects to lay off 7% of its employees. This action aims to streamline operations and enhance effectiveness. The information comes from Perrigo's fiscal year 2025 report. Further details on affected departments were not provided.

https://wkfr.com/west-michigan-perrigo-layoffs/

Moderna reduced its workforce in 2025. Sarepta also experienced job cuts during the same year. In contrast, Insulet saw an increase in its headcount. Vertex Pharmaceuticals similarly expanded its employee base. These changes affected major Massachusetts life sciences companies.

https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/news/2026/03/04/life-sciences-workforce-2025.html

Morgan Stanley will reduce its workforce by three percent. Around 2,500 staff members will be affected. The firm aims for strategic restructuring and efficiency. This follows a similar workforce reduction in March 2025. Other financial firms have also announced recent job cuts.

https://eand.co/morgan-stanley-layoffs-bank-to-cut-3-workforce-across-divisions

# Morgan Stanley Layoff Report — March 4, 2026
Source: TheLayoff.com | Thread: Morgan Stanley WM/Tech RIF
Thread ID: @OP+1kjtkpz73
Views: 8,754 | Replies: 60 | Last Activity: 8 hours ago (as of report generation)

## Executive Summary

On March 4, 2026, Morgan Stanley carried out a significant reduction in force (RIF) affecting its Wealth Management (WM) and Technology divisions globally. The Wall Street Journal pegged the cuts at approximately 2,500 employees, representing roughly 3% of the total workforce (@ez). The layoffs rolled out across time zones throughout the day, beginning in Asia and progressing through EMEA and North America. Affected employees reported being escorted out of offices, receiving garden leave notices, and in some cases discovering their severance was capped below what their tenure would suggest. No WARN Act filings were identified by thread participants ahead of the event.

## Scale & Official Confirmation

The thread was initiated by Anonymous 72 (@OP+1kjtkpz73) on March 4, who confirmed the RIF for WM was set to occur that day. The original post was made approximately one day before widespread reporting emerged.

The scale was subsequently corroborated by a user citing Wall Street Journal coverage (@ez):

"Wall Street Journal just posted a story. Said 2,500 or 3% of the workforce."

This figure places the event among Morgan Stanley's more significant recent headcount reductions. The thread notes no advance WARN Act filings were identified in the US (@eg, @dq), which generated discussion — one user speculated this may be because the majority of cuts were concentrated outside the US (@dr), which would exempt the firm from domestic filing requirements.

## Geographic Scope

Layoffs were confirmed or credibly reported across at least six cities spanning four countries, suggesting a coordinated global action rather than a regionally isolated restructuring.

### Asia (First Wave)
The thread noted that March 4 arrived in Asia first, and that the RIF had "started" there (@b6). Specific details from Asian offices were limited in the thread.

### London & EMEA (Second Wave)

• A London equities employee reported being told their position was at risk (@cw).
• Tech in London was independently confirmed as affected (@d0).
• One user reported that London had "finished" processing before the US wave began (@dn), suggesting a structured, time-zone-sequenced rollout.
• An EMEA-wide mandatory call for tech staff was reportedly called on short notice (@cp).

### Glasgow

• Affected divisions confirmed: finance, legal, and cyber security (@dd).
• Notably, one user suggested the cuts in Glasgow may have begun as early as mid-February, with several VPs disappearing around February 15 on apparent "leave" of 1.5–2 months — interpreted by the poster as quiet separations ahead of the formal RIF date (@dd).
• One IB employee in Glasgow confirmed their role was designated "at risk" and that a 30-day consultation period had commenced (@f8).

### Montreal

• Tech division confirmed affected (@ed).
• One employee reported a colleague was escorted out of the office with all her belongings (@ef).
• An Executive Director in Montreal was confirmed let go (@ey).

### New York

• WM Operations confirmed affected; at least one employee confirmed they were laid off (@dj).
• A 28+ year veteran (VP L4, tech) in NYC confirmed separation (details in Severance section below) (@dv).

### Alpharetta, GA

• Confirmed affected (@dk).

### Arlington, VA

• Multiple people escorted out of the Arlington office (@er).

## Seniority of Those Affected

Reports suggest the RIF was not limited to junior employees. Confirmed or reported senior separations include:

The presence of EDs and senior VPs in the affected pool suggests this was a performance-agnostic cost reduction exercise rather than a targeted performance-based action.

## Severance & Compensation Details

One of the most detailed firsthand accounts came from a 28+ year NYC VP (L4) in technology (@dv):

• Placed on garden leave through June 30, 2026
• Severance was described as capped, despite tenure exceeding the cap threshold
• The poster noted "there were good things there and better things ahead"

A follow-up post from another affected employee (@dx) added:

• Received 3 weeks of severance per year of service, but capped at 15 years despite 20 years of actual tenure

This cap drew scrutiny. Anonymous 72 (@e4) noted the cap represents a specific dollar ceiling tied to officer title, and that it may be legally challengeable since the cap threshold is never disclosed to employees prior to a RIF.

A separate user confirmed there is an internal HR website listing the dollar caps by title (VP/ED/MD) (@e7), though the URL was not publicly shared in the thread.

## Process & Transparency Concerns

Several users raised concerns about how the RIF was handled procedurally:

• No WARN Act notices identified for the US as of the time of posting (@eg, @dq). One user noted this may be because the cuts were primarily non-US in focus (@dr), which would exempt the firm from the 60-day advance notice requirement under the federal WARN Act.
• No advance media coverage — multiple users expressed surprise that a reduction of this scale had not appeared in the press beforehand (@b5, @dq).
• One user speculated the March 4 date may not represent the end of reductions, suggesting a rolling layoff model in which additional divisions (e.g., Banking, non-tech WM) could follow in subsequent weeks (@ds).
• The Glasgow situation (@dd) raises the possibility that some separations were being quietly processed weeks before the official RIF date, which would be consistent with a rolling or pre-staged reduction strategy.

## Division Breakdown

Based on thread reports, the following divisions were mentioned as affected:

## Notable Contested Claims

Two posts (@e9, @ej) made claims alleging that layoffs disproportionately targeted white employees and attributed this to managerial bias. These posts received heavily split reactions (roughly equal upvotes and downvotes) and generated significant sub-thread debate. They are noted here for completeness but:

1. Are not independently verifiable from thread content
2. Represent individual perceptions, not documented patterns
3. Should not be treated as factual reporting absent external corroboration

## Key Open Questions (As of Report Date)

• Will additional RIF waves affect Banking and non-tech WM, as speculated in @ds?
• Are severance caps legally defensible given the non-disclosure issue raised in @e4?
• Did Glasgow separations beginning ~February 15 (@dd) constitute a pre-staged RIF, and does this affect WARN Act or UK employment law compliance?
• What is the total headcount impact in each geographic region?

• Report compiled from user posts on TheLayoff.com thread @OP+1kjtkpz73. All information is sourced from anonymous employee accounts.

This won't end well. You can only squeeze so much blood from layoffs before the whole thing collapses.

I see categories for 0-10. Seems to me, if only 1 or 2 people in a site were laid off, they'd fit in that 0-10 category and be listed? Wondering how or when WF files, or what the rules are. I was let go on 9/30/25 but don't see anything on WARN for my location.

Link: https://www.warntracker.com/?company=wells-fargo

Supernal, Hyundai's eVTOL subsidiary, announced significant layoffs. The company cut 296 jobs on February 27. This decision highlights ongoing challenges in the advanced air mobility sector. Supernal is not yet ready to bring its product to market. A small team of 70 to 80 employees remains to maintain essential operations.

https://www.el-balad.com/6866550

Well is it time for the Layoff round 3 to happen?

Anyone else from Managed Services get axed?

My heart goes out to everyone affected. Especially those who really needed and wanted to keep their jobs.

Layoffs will Occur on Thursday and Friday March 5th and March 6th to further increase the presence of offshore contractors. No exact # of who will be impacted. This is for Optum

RIF for WM is confirmed to happen tomorrow.

Heard through the grapevine people in HR have said that they expected more attrition after the 5 day RTO was announced. So from this you could infer that a major goal, if not THE goal of this was to reduce headcount. Also this means that layoffs are coming since not enough people left.

The next piece of this is that the execs have admitted that the company is becoming too reliant on contractors, and want to balance out the hiring with more full time employees. What is not mentioned is that they want to flip contractors to FTEs. Offshore hubs are being built to facilitate this along with abusing work visas.

There has also been a major push for AI recently. Which helps reduce headcount even further. Models are now reaching the point where anyone can automate tasks or have someone vibe-code a solution that is "good enough".

The end goal of this is that they want cheap offshore labor to handle AI to push out stuff that is passable. So many current FTEs are going to be displaced. This is also the end goal of an overwhelming majority of other large companies. This is not systematically sustainable. And the working class is being set up for a world of hurt.

Wells Fargo is struggling after laying off 5,600 workers — and paying millions in severance - Market Realist https://share.google/6Ie7MrFCLAJ55vvL4

No customer yet.

If you think you have what it takes to make it outside Wells Fargo, you best be looking. Latest survey has just over 60% of US companies saying they plan to reduce workforce numbers in 2026.

Run. Hide. Fight. Kiss your a@@ goodbye.

There have been numerous rebadging (moving functions and the people that support it to a contracting firm) over the last few years, significant ones with Infy, HCL, and Cognizant. I'm hearing it's coming again, on and off shore.

Anyone have any details on the areas impacted?

I just got out of a meeting where my VP made it pretty clear that by end of this year, he wants a 30:70 employee ratio between USA and HIH. There was another thread here talking about this, but seems to have been deleted (I didn't know layoff.com deleted threads).

We are given a timeline now to make this happen and get our ratios aligned to this goal. I wonder how long before our turn to have our job be offshored.

Does anyone have numbers of how many we let go? and what groups

I heard that layoffs from bench are coming, potentially with as little as 2 weeks bench time. What are others hearing?

AOL is implementing job cuts. One hundred eight positions are affected. These reductions impact the Reston office. Bending Spoons acquired AOL. This acquisition led to the workforce changes.

AOL is implementing job cuts. One hundred eight positions are affected. These reductions impact the Reston office. Bending Spoons acquired AOL. This acquisition led to the workforce changes.

I read that the corporate workforce was around 6,500, which felt surprisingly low for Walgreens. That figure was from 2021. What do you think the corporate headcount is now? Above or below 5,000? That still seems incredibly low to me.

My source is never wrong. And feels like this year will be big. That second part is an opinion.

Anyone attended a town hall meeting this morning? During their laughable TED talk, it was brought up that India has the largest headcount of State Street employees at 19,000. Let that sink in. At this rate, the only people will have jobs in the US are the SVPs and their Indian H1B1 workers.

There is something definitely going on with the requirement process where Indians are getting preferential treatment over other ethnicities and locations. Right now, all recruiters are based in India and it seems they are mainly focusing on candidates that are from India. I noticed even for local job reqs, Indians living in the US are being selected over other candidates for jobs and promotions. Its fine if someone is more equalified should get the role or promotion, but most of time I find out these Indian workers were just good at lying on their resumes and interviews and we have to pick up their responsibilities.

Legends Hospitality LLC filed a layoff notice for View Boston. View Boston's restaurants will close on April 21, 2026. This action affects at least 41 employees. The workforce reduction takes effect April 22, 2026. The company plans to expand event space and new offerings.

https://www.wcvb.com/article/view-boston-restaurants-closing-april-21-notice-filed-for-layoffs/70515824