Spotify, the Swedish music-streaming giant, has announced that it will be cutting 17% of its workforce, equating to around 1,500 jobs, as the technology industry continues to cut employees into the new year.

CEO Daniel Ek said the job cuts were based on economic growth slowing “dramatically” which prompted Spotify to enact “substantial action to right-size our costs”.

“I recognise this will impact a number of individuals who have made valuable contributions”, Ek said in a memo to employees on Monday (4 December), “to be blunt, many smart, talented and hard-working people will be departing us”.

The news follows previous employee cuts at Spotify in June, however, this affected just 2% of the workforce at the time.  

Ek said the streaming giant had considered spreading the reductions out over the next two years but said dramatic action was needed to meet the company’s financial goals. 

Spotify reported a profit of $70.5m in the three months to September 2023, marking its first quarterly profit in over a year, the BBC reported.

In the past three months, the number of active tech jobs hiring in the US and UK peaked in October and saw a significant fall in November.

According to GlobalData's Job Analytics Database, the number of active tech job posts in the US totalled 790,000 in October, a significant increase from September which totalled 644,000.

The US saw a decrease in active tech job postings in November with a total of 578,000.

This was mirrored in the UK, which saw active tech job postings peak in October with a total of 64,181 listed.

The UK tech job market saw a decrease in November with a total of 47,426 listed for the month.