Digital archivist Smarsh began laying off an unspecified number of employees this week, cutbacks the Portland company described as a “difficult but necessary decision to right-size our workforce” after a period of expansion.
Privately held Smarsh stores emails, text messages and other digital communication. Its clients include financial institutions and other organizations that must retain electronic communication to comply with regulatory standards or for potential litigation.
Unemployment is near record lows in Oregon and across the country and businesses are well into their second year of an acute labor shortage, a crunch that is particularly severe in the tech sector and other highly specialized industries.
With inflation at the highest point in decades, though, and the Federal Reserve raising interest rates to the cool the economy, economists are watching closely for signs of a slowing labor market. Intel announced last month that it’s slowing hiring across the company; online tech journal The Information reported earlier Wednesday that Google has frozen hiring for the next two weeks.
In a statement, Smarsh indicated this week’s cuts were triggered by a corporate reorganization rather than by broader economic forces.
“Smarsh has grown aggressively as a result of increased demand and a number of recent acquisitions,” the company said in a statement. It said the layoffs will “align our expenses to our objectives.”
Smarsh hired a new CEO last month, Kim Crawford Goodman, who was previously head of payments and risk solutions at Wisconsin financial technology company Fiserv.
Employees gave widely divergent estimates of how many people lost their jobs. Smarsh declined to discuss the scale of the layoffs.
The company had 1,400 employees before the cuts, including 250 in Oregon and southwest Washington.
— Mike Rogoway | mrogoway@oregonian.com | Twitter: @rogoway | 503-294-7699
