Startups spanning various sectors have also joined the trend, announcing employee layoffs in the first half of the year. Despite a brief slowdown in technology layoffs over the summer and fall, recent developments suggest that layoffs are on the rise again.

Here are the companies that laid off a large percentage of their employees this month:

Convoy
Is halting operations due to a “massive freight recession,” CEO Dan Lewis announced in a memo October 19, a week after laying off 20% of its workforce.

LegalZoom
Plans to lay off more than 100 workers in its sales division, the company disclosed in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act letter.

Plume
Laid off more than two dozen workers, TechCrunch learned October 18, about a year after the trans healthcare startup raised a $24 million Series B.

Google
Eliminated at least 40 roles in its news division, Google confirmed October 18.

Expedia Group
Cut around 100 jobs, Skift reports, in its second round of layoffs in recent months. The cuts reportedly impacted employees across data and AI.

Stack Overflow
Laid off 28% of its staff, more than likely impacting 100 people, the Prosus-owned company announced October 16.

Bandcamp
Eliminated 50% of its staff on October 16 after ownership changed from video game company Epic to music licensing platform Songtradr.

LinkedIn
Confirmed October 16 that it will cut 668 more jobs, bringing the total to nearly 1,400 this year, with the bulk of the most recent cuts impacting those with R&D roles.

Flexport
On October 13 began laying off 20% of its workers, about 600 people, as it prepares for restructuring, and continues a cost-cutting campaign that began with rescinding offers and working to lease office space.

Qualcomm
Is cutting 1,258 jobs in two of its California offices. According to a filing with the California Employment Development Department, the semiconductor company plans to make the reductions in December.

Blue Origin
Laid off 40 people October 10, including software engineers and program managers, according to The Information.

Stitch Fix
Will lay off 558 employees after the personal styling subscription service closes a distribution center in Dallas.

Synapse
Confirmed October 6 that it had laid off 86 people, about 40% of the a16z-backed fintech company. Earlier in the year, Synapse laid off 18% of its employees after its growth slowed.

Bird
Issued a new round of layoffs after acquiring Spin, according to an email interim CEO Michael Washinushi sent to the company. The layoffs came one week after the company was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange, and the exact number remains unknown.

Qualtrics
Announced on October 4 that 780 roles are being eliminated and that “several hundred” roles are changing or moving locations in 2024.

Hopper
Is reducing its full-time staff by 30%, amounting to 250 job cuts, the company announced October 3.

Chainalysis
Announced October 2 that it is laying off around 15% of its workforce, affecting approximately 150 employees.

Although some economists are advising against succumbing to recession fears, there is cautious optimism. The technology sector’s road to recovery is characterised by slow progress. As a consequence, technology companies continue to downsize their workforces and shift from a growth-oriented approach to an efficiency-oriented approach, adapting to the constant challenges in the market. And the layoff trend will continue.

Apart from its modern look, the operating system introduces several productivity-focused features and enhancements such as Snap Layouts, Windows Subsystem for Android, better support for external displays, Windows Widgets and more. However, Windows 21H2 was not received very well by the general audience and many PCs failed to make the switch from Windows 10 to 11, and users disliked the redesigned taskbar and Start menu, which lacked many features, according to users, due to the rushed release of the version.

Although Microsoft spent two years perfecting the 21H2 version and fixing the biggest inaccuracies, it decided to discontinue its support and focus on the latest version of Windows 11 – 22H2, which is claimed to be many times better.

If your computer is still running Windows 11 version 21H2, you can update to 22H2 and the Moment 3 update.

You can also download Moment 4, an optional non-security update with several long-awaited features, such as taskbar regrouping, a redesigned volume slider, native RGB controls, Copilot, and more.
Microsoft will automatically update most Windows 11 users to the Moment 4 update in November 2023. Click here to learn how to install Windows 11 Moment 4.

Microsoft is expected to release Windows 11 version 23H2 with almost zero changes later this year. It will get two years of support, both the original version and version 22H2.

Responsive Electronic Attack for Cooperation Tasks II (REACTII) is coordinated by the Spanish defense industry leader Indra. The project aims to boost efforts of the EU defense sector to fill in the existing gaps in the EU Airborne Electronic Attack (AEA) capabilities. REACT II will bring all the progress and lessons learned from REACT I (funded under EDIDP-2019). The solution’s ultimate objective is to improve reliability and security for operations. Bianor’s work is focused on the solution’s software architecture and interfaces.

European Command and Control System (EC2) is an Indra-coordinated project also featuring the Italian airspace, defense, and security forerunner Leonardo. The project creates a single access point for command and control, contributing to operational capabilities. EC2 will continue the EDIDP project on command and control, ESC2. It will be a critical enabler for operations and missions under the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP), providing the EU with a multi-domain command and control solution. The system will centralize all operational capabilities in a single access point. The project will cover study, design, system prototyping, and testing actions. It will ensure interoperability with all government actors. Bianor’s responsibilities include establishing interoperability with external systems.

Federated Advanced Cyber-physical Test range (FACT) is led by the Norwegian Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace AS in partnership with Leonardo and Rheinmetall. FACT will create a standard toolbox for cyber-physical testing with a common architecture and environment. The project will deliver a new European capability for cyber-physical testing and verification of equipment based on two disruptive and unique assets: an advanced cyber-physical test range capability and a European-wide federated approach. FACT will ensure an improved and coordinated cyber security focus, enhancing performance and productivity and reducing risk and cost compared to stand-alone Cyber range environments. Bianor will implement the software solution for data processing in a federated environment.

According to the company, the change was made to align the desktop experience with its mobile app. You can now browse, view, and reorganize Spotify’s libraries as you would on mobile.

The left pane includes a clean interface with Home, Search and Your Library icons, and below them, icons of recently played artist tracks and album artwork, allowing for quick and easy listening. Additionally, clicking the library icon expands this playlist for additional details and a list of names.

On the right side of the screen, you’ll find the Now Playing view, which displays the current song or podcast, along with additional information and details like tour dates, merchandise, transcriptions, or episode descriptions for podcasts.

Spotify’s new updates also include a few helpful tips to get you started with the revamped interface; they are as follows:

Compact: By default, you’ll see an expanded view of your library that you can collapse at any time.

Search and filter your library: The new library design allows you to switch through your dedicated channels for music, podcasts and audiobooks and search only your library.

Customizable: You can move and pin playlists in the Library, as well as drop songs into playlists that can be edited.

In the context of artificial intelligence, programming involves creating algorithms that allow machines to learn, reason and make human-like decisions. In the ever-evolving world of artificial intelligence, staying on top of new developments is crucial for any developer who wants to exploit the capabilities of artificial intelligence.

Python
Data scientists often use it because it’s easy to learn and offers flexibility, intuitive design, and versatility. One of the primary reasons for its popularity is its readability, which makes it easy for developers to write and understand code. Python is also an interpreted language, meaning it doesn’t need to be compiled before running, saving time and effort.

Python offers several advantages for AI development, including:

-Easy to learn: Python has a simple and intuitive syntax that’s easy to learn, making it an ideal language for beginners.
-Large community: Python has a vast community of developers who constantly contribute to its development, creating new libraries and tools that make it even more efficient for AI development.
-Wide range of libraries: Python has a vast library of pre-built modules and packages that can be used for AI development, such as NumPy, SciPy, Pandas, and TensorFlow.
-Interpreted language: Python is an interpreted language, meaning it doesn’t need to be compiled before running, saving time and effort.
-Platform-independent: Python can run on different platforms, such as Windows, Linux, and macOS, making it easier for developers to work on different machines.

Java
Java is a general-purpose programming language widely used in building AI applications. Its strengths lie in its ability to handle large-scale projects, platform independence, and strong memory management. Here are some reasons why Java is useful for AI development:

-Platform independence: Java code can run on multiple operating systems, making it a universal language for AI development that can be used across different devices and platforms.
-Large developer community: Java has a large community of developers who contribute to developing new tools and libraries for AI development.
-Object-oriented programming: Java’s object-oriented programming features can make it easier to write modular, reusable, and scalable code. This is especially useful for building complex AI applications.

C++
C++ is another high-performance programming language well-suited for building AI applications that require speed and efficiency. Its strengths lie in the following:

-Its ability to handle low-level programming;
-Its memory management;
-Its ability to compile machine code;
-One of the most significant advantages of using C++ for AI development is its speed. It’s one of the fastest programming languages available, making it great for AI applications that require real-time processing. Additionally, C++ is a cross-platform language, meaning that code can be compiled for different operating systems, making it versatile for AI development.

In the wake of the increasing data breaches that many well-known tech names are being accused of right now, Microsoft is taking preventive measures by paying more attention to just that.

Another interesting feature is the VPN (virtual private network) that can be seen. When users establish a recognized VPN connection, a small shield icon appears in the taskbar indicating that the connection is secure. This enables users to check the status of their VPN.

The tech giant has also included options to customize the VPN feature through quick settings. This enables users to align VPN settings according to their personal preferences and requirements.

Microsoft said Windows 11 PCs are equipped with the advanced Pluton security processor, which offers improved protection from the chip to the cloud. An integration that provides robust protection against malware, hardware attacks and certificate compromise.

Starting this month, users will receive real-time alerts in their Start menu notifying them of immediate actions to protect their information and computer.

The head of product at Magna, Nitesh Gupta, told Medium that the new airdrop tool is similar to the Disperse app that was launched in 2018.

The latest product, with a meme-inspired name – wentokens.xyz, is part of Magna’s vision to improve performance in low-level optimizations. The tool is claimed to be “30% cheaper and can process more transactions” than its competitor.

“The approach I took is quite similar to Disperse’s relatively standard airdrop. Where we differ is that I utilize inline assembly to skip…unnecessary EVM opcodes that plain solidity code would be subject to”,

said Harrison Leggio, protocol engineering lead at Magna.

“When people write at a lower level, it can be more optimal. I would say that lower-level languages tend to be harder to write and harder to read and reason — but they’re actually simpler and there’s less things going on.”

said Nitesh Gupta.

Patrick Collins, founder of Cyfrin, a security auditing firm, has previously noted that he hopes more cryptocurrency projects will eventually start to be written in lower-level languages, as this will help reduce gas prices significantly.

Amazon Keyspaces supports the same application code, Apache 2.0 licensed drivers, and developer tools that customers running Cassandra workloads use today.

According to AWS official press-post, customers can easily migrate on-premises Cassandra workloads to the cloud, without the worry of managing underlying infrastructure, while realizing superior scalability, availability, and manageability.

What are the benefits of Amazon Keyspaces for Apache Cassandra:

• no servers to manage
• no need to provision, configure, and operate large Cassandra clusters
• no need to manually add or remove nodes
• no need to rebalance partitions as traffic scales up or down
• no up-front investments required to use Amazon Keyspaces

The solution has come after many customers using AWS asked for help running, scaling, and managing their Cassandra database deployments because managing large Cassandra clusters on-premises with hundreds of terabytes of data and millions of reads and writes per second is difficult and complex.

Cassandra requires specialized expertise to set up, configure, and maintain the underlying infrastructure, and necessitates a deep understanding of the entire application stack, including the Apache Cassandra open source software. Aside from scaling clusters, customers must secure, patch, and operate Cassandra.

Managing and scaling Cassandra clusters requires regularly adjusting complex configuration settings, manually adding or removing nodes, and rebalancing partitions, which can adversely affect availability and performance. Most customers with variable workloads also find it challenging to scale clusters up and down, so they often end up building clusters for peak loads and incur the unnecessary cost of paying for unused capacity. And, many customers also complain that they are unable to upgrade their cluster reliably due to Cassandra’s clunky rollback and debugging features, so instead they run outdated versions of Cassandra.

Amazon Keyspaces provides a scalable, highly available, and fully managed Cassandra-compatible database service.

Amazon Keyspaces is compatible with the open-source Apache Cassandra Query Language (CQL) API, enabling customers to migrate their workloads to Amazon Keyspaces and use the same Cassandra application code, Apache 2.0 licensed drivers, and tools that they use today.

 

Shawn Bice

“Many customers have self-managed Cassandra on Amazon EC2 or on-premises for some time, and these customers tell us that managing large Cassandra clusters is difficult because it requires specialized expertise to set up, configure, and maintain the underlying infrastructure, and necessitates a deep understanding of the entire application stack, including the Apache Cassandra open source software,” said Shawn Bice, Vice President, Databases, AWS. 

Amazon Keyspaces is serverless, so customers no longer need to provision, configure, and operate large Cassandra clusters, nor manually add or remove nodes, or rebalance partitions as traffic scales up or down. Amazon Keyspaces takes care of all of this.

“Amazon Keyspaces gives customers the ability to run Cassandra without having to worry about managing the underlying hardware, and because it’s also serverless, customers can stand up Cassandra clusters in minutes and scale their database up and down with ease based on the needs of their application” explained Shawn Bice. 

Amazon Keyspaces provides customers with single-digit millisecond performance at any scale, and can scale tables up and down automatically based on actual application traffic, with virtually unlimited throughput and storage. Amazon Keyspaces offers both on-demand and provisioned capacity modes.

Customers with existing Cassandra tables running on-premises or on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) can easily migrate those tables to Amazon Keyspaces using AWS services like Amazon EMR or open-source tools like the Cassandra Query Language Shell (cqlsh). Amazon Keyspaces integrates with other AWS services.

Customer experience

“We really like the flexibility that Cassandra offers our developers, and we are excited about using Amazon Keyspaces,” said Amanda Smith, Technology Development Manager, Halliburton. 

Founded in 1919, Halliburton is one of the world’s largest providers of products and services to the energy industry. As part of Data Foundation, a DecisionSpace® 365 data platform, Halliburton uses a variety of purpose-built databases, including Cassandra.

“Amazon Keyspaces integrates with other AWS services, has built-in enterprise features, such as encryption, and provides us with a scalable, highly available, fully managed, and serverless option to run our Cassandra workloads” she stated.

Elsevier is a global information analytics business that provides scientists and clinicians with digital solutions and tools in the areas of strategic research management, R&D performance, clinical decision support, and professional education.

“We are migrating one of our customer-facing big-data analytics products to leverage latest technologies, and Cassandra meets our use case to store information because of its performance and scalability. However, we were concerned about managing and monitoring the Cassandra infrastructure due to its complexity and time required to manage and support,” said Edward Lewis, Manager of Information Technology, Elsevier. “Amazon Keyspaces is fully managed and serverless, giving us the scalability, fast performance, and reliability we need to run our applications.”

To get started with Amazon Keyspaces, visit: http://aws.amazon.com/keyspaces.