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Salesforce axes 752 employees in San Francisco

Marc Benioff reflects on the state of education in the Bay Area and Salesforce’s decadelong commitment to public schools at Presidio Middle School in San Francisco on Sept. 19, 2022. | Paul Kuroda for The Standard.

As part of a recently revealed mass layoff, Salesforce is cutting a total of 752 jobs at its San Francisco offices, according to a state filing.

Those employees span general administration, sales, customer service, technology and product roles, according to a document filed with the state’s Employment Development Department.

In a letter last week, Salesforce co-CEO Marc Benioff wrote that the company expanded too quickly during the pandemic and needs to make substantial cutbacks to prepare for an economic downturn. The overall layoffs will affect 10% of Salesforce’s global workforce.

“We hired too many people leading into this economic downturn we’re now facing, and I take responsibility for that,” wrote Benioff.

The company also plans to trim its real estate holdings, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission last week.

The company has been steadily cutting back its real estate footprint in San Francisco since the pandemic led many employees to work remote.

As of January 2022, the company had 1.9 million square feet of leased or owned property in San Francisco, plus another 705,000 that was sublet and 212,000 available for sublease, according to a financial filing.

Annie Gaus can be reached at annie@sfstandard.com