GitHub, the open source software platform, announced in an email to employs they will lay off about 10% of their staff, amounting to about 300 workers.

The company also announced they would be closing all of their physical offices in a move to go entirely remote.

Parent company Microsoft also announced 10,000 layoffs in January – it is currently unclear if the GitHub cuts add on to or are a part of these planned redundancies.

The email sent to staff noted budgeting issues as the main reason for the job cuts, as well as the shift to remote working.

Company offices were often being underused and operation costs were deemed a waste in the current working atmosphere which favours remote or hybrid environments.

GitHub has contributed to the AI race with their programme Copilot, and the platform is home to 100 million developers.

Other austerity measures the company is taking include extending laptop refreshments from three to four years, and moving to Microsoft Teams for video conferencing to save communications costs.

Just this week, Yahoo announced job cuts, following the major trend among top tech companies.

Google, Meta, NetApp, IBM, Dell, PayPal, Spotify, Twitter, and Zoom have all announced major layoffs of staff.

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The trend appears to have no intentions of slowing down. Economic upheaval, an increase of hires from the pandemic, less demand, and a shift in priorities have all been reasons major tech companies have announced the layoffs.

GitHub’s announcement may be in part due to their parent company’s, Microsoft, increased investment into OpenAI. While GitHub’s Copilot AI programme may have attracted users, Microsoft’s priorities appear to align with OpenAI’s progress in chatbot technology.

GitHub also confirmed that the hiring freezes announced in early 2023 would still be in effect. The company did not specify which departments would be most affected by the cuts.

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