Klarna lays off 10% of workforce, Raven Software forms union, U.S. births rise for first time since 2014
Yahoo Finance's Julie Hyman reports the latest business headlines.
Video Transcript
- The pandemic had brought us layoffs over Zoom, but now there has been layoffs via a pre-recorded video message. According to recent reports, that's just what buy now, pay later app Klarna did. The Swedish company used a video to announce that it's laying off 10% of its global workforce. That's about 700 of its 7,000 employees.
CEO Sebastian [? McCluskey ?] delivered the news to employees in the message. He cited a number of different issues-- the war in Ukraine, a shift in consumer sentiment, a steep increase in inflation, a highly volatile stock market, and, he said, a likely recession. Klarna's of course, though, are the latest in a rash of layoffs in the recent months following the likes of Netflix, Wayfair, Robinhood, and Peloton. And of course, there's been a lot of pain in the buy now, pay later space, as well as we have seen private valuations come down, including that of Klarna's
Meanwhile, the unionization wave continues, this time in the AAA video game space. 28 quality assurance workers at Raven Software, an Activision-Blizzard subsidiary that primarily works on the "Call of Duty" franchise, they voted to form the Game Workers Alliance this week. The vote was live streamed on Twitch. The group is now legally recognized by the National Labor Relations Board, and it can negotiate its first contract to secure better pay and working conditions. Those workers first asked Activision to recognize their union following layoffs in December of last year, which prompted 60 employees to walk out of work in protest.
And it seems babies are back. The US saw its first increase in births since 2014 last year. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, the total rose to 3.66 million in 2021 up from 3.61 million the year before. It's only a 1% gain, but it's a big turnaround from a 3.8% drop in 2020 and the 2% annual decline between 2014 and 2020.
Even so, the birth rate remains well below historic highs, and those gains were only among white women and Hispanics. Black women saw a 2% drop, with 3% for Asians and Native Americans. Jared?
- Hey, so some good news on the demographic front.
