Fintech company Block (NYSE: SQ), which makes the payments services Square and Cash App, is laying off 46 people in Oregon, according to a filing with state regulators.
The Oakland, Calif.-based company is cutting 1,000 workers across its footprint, according to media reports.
The company will continue to have employees in Oregon after this separation, the company said in an emailed statement. It declined to detail any numbers.
Block, which was previously called Square, has had a presence in Portland for some time tapping into the region’s fintech talent. In 2019, it got bigger with the acquisition of Portland-based Third Party Technologies, which was bought by Cash App.
In January 2020 the company leased 64,000 square feet of office space in downtown Portland. However, once the Covid-19 pandemic hit and employers sent workers home, the company adopted a remote work policy.
According to the layoff notice sent to the state, Block officials said the 46 employees being laid off were all remote workers. The affected employees worked on the company’s Square, Cash App and corporate functions and included titles such as customer experience, software engineering and business process improvement.
In December, the company cut 40 workers from Tidal, the streaming music business it owns, according to the San Francisco Business Times. The paper noted that CEO Jack Dorsey told investors last year that he wanted to see the company’s headcount cap at 12,000. At the time it had 13,000 employees.
This is the latest tech company to announce cuts. Last week, e-commerce giant eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY), which also has an office in downtown Portland, said it is slashing 1,000 jobs. The company has not answered questions on what the cuts mean for the local team.
Earlier in January, nuclear power startup NuScale Power said it is cutting 154 employees. Footwear giant Nike has also been restructuring and cutting headcount.
