Yahoo Finance tech editor Allie Garfinkle breaks down the most recent layoffs at Airbnb despite CEO Brian Chesky's previous staffing commitments.

Video Transcript

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SEANA SMITH: Airbnb laying off about 30% of its recruiting staff, even though the lodging rental company saying that it still plans to expand its overall headcount this year. Now these latest cuts come less than two years after a 25% reduction in staff in the early days of the pandemic. We want to bring in Yahoo Finance's Allie Garfinkle. And Ali, I think the cuts here from Airbnb came as a bit of a surprise, given the fact that Chesky said he didn't have plans to do so not too long ago.

ALLIE GARFINKLE: That's absolutely true, Seana, but to be fair-- let's start by being fair-- these layoffs are a small percentage of Airbnb's staff. The cuts we're talking about here are about 0.4% of the company's total workforce of about 6,800 workers. I did some back of the napkin math, and that shakes out to about 30 people in recruiting, which, of course, is difficult for those people but isn't a mass layoff by any stretch. That said, this is not exactly what Brian Chesky was promising in the company's earnings call just three weeks ago. Take a listen.

BRIAN CHESKY: We have a general philosophy that we want the very best people in every field to come to Airbnb in every function. We're functionally organized. And I think that, you know, we're one of the few tech companies that isn't doing layoffs. We're not cutting. We're not freezing. We're actually stepping on the gas. But in our mind, stepping on the gas doesn't mean adding a huge amount of people. We're going to continue to stay really lean, but we're really focused on just really hiring in key positions.

ALLIE GARFINKLE: In that call, Airbnb's CFO went on to say that he was actually expecting headcount to grow this year between 2 and 4%, which, to be fair, is down from about 11% last year but still would be a modest growth. That said, what do we make of this in the context of the layoffs we've just seen? What should investors think about them? And I think the answer is to look to Chesky himself. Today he's expected to speak at the Morgan Stanley TMT conference, and my big question-- and I'm sure I'm not the only one-- has there been a change in how this company is approaching cost cutting, and will we see his tone shift?

DAVE BRIGGS: Should be interesting to find out. I'm just curious if you really did back of the napkin math. You're way too young--

ALLIE GARFINKLE: I did.

DAVE BRIGGS: --to have ever done back of the nap-- like that's old guys like me. You do iPhone math. I just want to be clear about that.

ALLIE GARFINKLE: I will bring you the napkin, Dave.

DAVE BRIGGS: All right. Are there other CEOs who have made similar promises only to back away from them, Ali?

ALLIE GARFINKLE: In some sense, yes. Back in November, for instance, reportedly CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg-- sorry, Meta. CFO-- CEO of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, said that he didn't anticipate more layoffs just after cutting about 11,000 people. That said, there are reportedly more layoffs set to happen at Meta in the coming weeks. However, I don't know if I put this in the same category as Chesky. He's-- I think the writing has sort of been on the wall on this one for a while.

For example, in Meta's earnings call just a couple of weeks ago, we heard them saying efficiency, cost cutting, and that often translates to something like layoffs. And I think the bottom line here, Dave, really comes down to a bigger point, which is that we've been talking about this deluge of tech layoffs for six months or more, and it doesn't seem like it's coming to stop. So far this year, data suggests that more than 120,000 tech employees have lost their jobs. So we've been talking about this flood of layoffs since mid-2022 and it's not stopping. And I think that's maybe the most important thing to remember.

DAVE BRIGGS: Also not denting that labor market, though. Massive job creation still very tight overall, and still, when you look at tech, it's only about 2% of the overall labor force. So relatively minimal when you talk about the country's workforce as a whole. Allie Garfinkle, great stuff. Thanks so much.