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12/6/2022
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Twitter’s Great Resignation Accelerated in 2022

Cameron Coles
VP of Marketing

We analyzed LinkedIn data for over 6,000 employees who departed Twitter and it’s subsidiaries from Jan 2017 to Nov 2022. Looking across 5+ years of departures from the company puts its recent layoffs into perspective.

In this article

Last updated: December 6, 2022

The reported 2022 layoff of ~3,700 employees dwarfs the number of employees who left during The Great Resignation. Our analysis showing which companies former Twitter employees joined after leaving may provide clues as to where these recent departures will go next.

A few patterns in the overall departure data include:

  • Over the past five years, the highest attrition Twitter has experienced in any given month is 368 and in any given year (2022) it is 2,078.
  • For Twitter, the Great Resignation of 2021 has not only continued, but accelerated through 2022, crossing over 2,000 departures. This marks over a 40% increase year-over-year.
  • While Meta’s employee departures spiked during the Great Resignation in 2021 and have decreased through 2022, Twitter’s employee departures exhibit the opposite trend.
  • Twitter employees have been most likely to join other big technology companies like Google, Facebook/Meta, and Apple.
  • Departures of employees to Block/Square/CashApp, TikTok/Bytedance, and Pinterest  surged in 2021 and 2022, and may point to where employees go next.

Twitter’s Great Resignation Accelerated in 2022

You may notice there’s a spike in departures each August. We dived into the data and discovered it’s due to interns leaving the company to return to campus for classes each fall.

From the Great Resignation to the Great Downsizing

You may notice there’s a spike in departures each August. We dived into the data and discovered it’s due to interns leaving the company to return to campus for classes each fall.

Explore departures over time

Some companies, namely Google and Facebook/Meta have remained steady destinations for former Twitter employees. Others like Instacart, Robinhood, and WeWork have seen periods of intense hiring out of Twitter, only to lose their ability to attract Twitter employees over time.

Tip: Type a company name in the search bar below and add multiple companies to compare them over time.

Top destinations for Twitter employees

Over the past four years, the most popular destinations for employees leaving Facebook include:

  1. Facebook/Meta
  2. Google
  3. TikTok/ByteDance
  4. Apple
  5. Microsoft
  6. LinkedIn
  7. Amazon
  8. Pinterest
  9. Block/Square/CashApp
  10. Snap Inc.

The most popular social media companies Meta employees left to join include:

  1. Facebook/Meta
  2. TikTok/ByteDance
  3. LinkedIn
  4. Pinterest
  5. Snap Inc.
  6. Reddit
  7. Instagram
  8. Twitch
  9. Discord
  10. YouTube

Top companies that double downed on hiring Twitter employees in 2022

In 2022, these 10 employers, led by AppLovin, Pinterest, and Amazon Web Services, saw the largest percentage increase in hires from Twitter, compared to the previous year. This data could foreshadow new hotspots for Twitter talent, in a similar way to how TikTok/Bytedance has emerged more recently.

Flight to Safety: In 2022, Twitter employees have increasingly joined public companies

In 2022, 85% of Twitter employees who departed joined public companies, compared to 76% in 2021. This could signify a ‘flight to safety’, as employees seek companies perceived to be more established and stable, during increased concerns of a recession.

Stay tuned for updates as employees join new companies

Over the past five years, Twitter employees migrated to some of the world’s most coveted employers. The scale of Twitter’s November layoff is unprecedented, tallying more departures in a month than the company had seen in the entirety of 2021. Given the well-regarded caliber of Twitter employees, we expect that the employees laid off today will soon land their next roles at other prominent technology companies like Facebook/Meta, Google and Apple or upcoming social media companies. Stay tuned as we follow where these employees ultimately land their next roles.