OTTAWA — In late March, Facebook parent Meta announced plans to build a new engineering hub in Toronto and hire more than 2,500 new staff over five years across the country. The technology giant’s executives, flanked by Ontario premier Doug Ford and the minister of economic development, Vic Fedeli, said at the time that the hub would play a key role in the creation of Meta’s metaverse. 

Yet less than eight months later, the company made its largest recorded layoffs as a public company, cutting 11,000 global employees, including Canadian staff. Across the industry, 850 tech companies have laid off more than 136,000 workers around the world, with 45,000 of those occurring in November alone, according to data from the website layoffs.fyi.

According to The Logic‘s analysis of previous announcements and news releases, big U.S. tech firms including Meta, Amazon and Microsoft promised between 2020 and 2022 to hire at least 6,500 corporate employees by 2027. In addition, Amazon pledged to add 4,500 warehouse roles by next year in Canada. 

Despite layoffs affecting much of the sector—some that have hit Twitter, Amazon and Meta’s Canadian operations—Big Tech firms indicated that they’re staying the course on their long-term expansion plans here.

“When COVID first hit, everybody put the brakes on what [was] happening, but very quickly, three months after, we saw tech companies start hiring, hiring, hiring, and that just snowballed. For the last couple of years, it was absolutely frenetic in Canada,” said Stephanie Hollingshead, CEO of Tech and People Network.

“I think they’ll follow through [with their commitments] … this is just a slight blip,” she added. “Companies have buttoned down a little bit right now … and it’s just a more cautious approach. Money’s not quite so free anymore.”

Meta spokesperson Lisa Laventure would not specify exactly how many Canadian jobs were slashed but said the company’s expansion plan in the country is a long-term one. “We remain committed to Canada and look forward to many years of innovation ahead in Toronto,” she told The Logic via email.

Here’s a look at some of the other Big Tech companies’ previously announced expansion plans, and where they may go from here: 

ALPHABET

Alphabet-owned Google announced in early 2020 that it intended to increase its office capacity in Canada, which would allow it to grow its workforce by around 3,500 by 2022, partly by constructing a new 11-storey building at its Kitchener, Ont., location, set to open in 2023. When completed, the site will have over 300,000 square feet of office space.

While the tech giant had 12,765 more employees worldwide in the third quarter than the prior three-month period, it will slow its headcount growth to less than half that number in the fourth quarter, CFO Ruth Porat told investors in an October earnings call. On Nov. 2, it opened a new location in Montreal that can accommodate up to 1,000 employees, making progress on its promises from 2020.

Hibaq Ali, communications manager for Google Canada, told The Logic by email that staff will be moving into the new building in Kitchener next year and the company plans to continue growing its team by “hiring for engineering, technical and other critical roles.” She declined to comment on how many employees the company expects to hire there.

AMAZON

In September 2020, Amazon announced plans to hire 3,500 corporate and tech roles in Canada by the end of 2023. It later said it planned to make 1,800 of those hires by the end of 2021. 

In April 2022, Amazon opened its new Hamilton robotics fulfillment centre and said it plans to open three other facilities in Ottawa, Southwold and Whitby that would create 4,500 warehouse jobs combined by 2023. Despite its global workforce shrinking by nearly 100,000 jobs in the second quarter of 2022 from the previous quarter, the e-commerce giant unveiled the Ottawa robotics centre on Oct. 21.

In mid-November, the company laid off 10,000 staff in human resources, devices and service departments globally, reportedly impacting an unclear number of Canadian employees. Amazon spokesperson Ryma Boussoufa would not comment on how its Canadian operations were affected, or whether it would impact the projected opening dates of the Southwold and Whitby facilities. Boussoufa also would not comment on how many of the promised 4,500 warehouse jobs have been filled.

MICROSOFT

In March 2021, Microsoft announced it was hiring 500 more employees at its offices in Vancouver, bringing its Canadian contingent to 3,700 people in total. This May, the software company also opened a new regional headquarters in Toronto with Mayor John Tory in attendance, with plans for it to host an innovation centre.

The company cut almost 1,000 staff globally in October across different levels, impacting fewer than half a per cent of its total employees. The Redmond, Wash.-based company did not respond to The Logic’s request for comment on whether Canadian employees were affected, or how its Toronto hiring plans would be impacted.

NETFLIX

Last year, streaming giant Netflix announced it would hire up to 15 people for a new Toronto office, with a plan to focus on working with Canadian creators.

Netflix did not respond to The Logic’s request for comment on whether the downturn may impact its expansion in the country.

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The pace of Big Tech expansions in the near future may look uncertain, but Hollingshead remains optimistic for the industry in the longer term. 

She said hiring in the tech sector doesn’t have a normal pace, and that even with the labour market’s ups and downs over the past three decades, demand for tech workers continues to climb.

“Just because the hiring is not frenetic right now, and just because some companies are doing layoffs, doesn’t mean there aren’t a mountain of tech jobs out there.”

Editor’s note: This article has been updated with more information on Amazon and Netflix’s hiring plans in Canada.