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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Sam Levin (now), Richard Luscombe and Graeme Wearden (earlier)

Twitter layoffs: anger and confusion as multiple teams reportedly decimated - as it happened

Twitter Inc. Elon Musk Sizewell United States United Kingdom
Two men walk outside a building that bears the Twitter blue bird logo. One man is staring at his mobile phone.
Twitter temporarily closed its offices on Friday and cut workers’ access to internal systems as it began laying off thousands of staff. Photograph: Jeff Chiu/AP

Summary

That’s all for our live coverage today, but we’ll continue to cover developments in the coming days. For now, here’s where things stand:

  • Twitter has laid off roughly half of its workforce, with an estimated 3,700 cuts across the company.

  • Audi, General Motors, General Mills and Pfizer were among those who halted advertisements, amid concerns Elon Musk will scale back misinformation and security protections on the platform.

  • The mass layoffs have reportedly gutted teams that cover human rights, machine learning ethics, curation, communications and accessibility.

  • Musk said there has been a mass drop in revenue due to advertisers leaving Twitter, which he claimed was an attack on free speech.

  • Twitter is facing a class-action lawsuit from former employees who say they were not given enough notice under US federal law that they had lost their jobs.

  • Derrick Johnson, the NAACP’s president, who met with Elon Musk on Tuesday, issued a statement urging all companies to pause ads on the platform.

  • With possible cuts to spending on critical resources such as cloud storage and servers, experts are particularly concerned about the impact on US midterm elections.

Updated

Guardian US technology reporter Kari Paul’s analysis of the layoffs and what they mean for the future of Twitter:

With possible cuts to spending on critical resources such as cloud storage and servers, experts are particularly concerned as the US midterm elections approach, when larger numbers of users than usual go to the platform to follow breaking news and share information.

An internal source at the company told Reuters the infrastructure cuts were “delusional”, adding that when user traffic kicks up, the service can fail “in spectacular ways”.

The layoffs are also calling into question Twitter’s ability to keep the platform safe and secure, and come after a whistleblower accused the company of “egregious” failings in security and safety.

“Elon Musk’s layoffs to Twitter’s policy enforcement teams will destroy the platform’s capacity to stop the spread of hate speech, misinformation and disinformation at a time when the American public and voters need access to facts and civil discourse more than ever,” said Jim Steyer, founder and CEO of digital rights group Common Sense Media.

The reports of drastic cuts to the communications staff raised concerns Twitter may follow in the path of other Musk companies like Tesla, which do not communicate with the press. Musk, who has historically had an adversarial relationship with media, dissolved the electric car company’s public relations department in 2020 in an unprecedented move.

Elon Musk has claimed in a tweet that every Twitter employee laid off was offered three months of severance.

But the New York Times, citing laid off employees, earlier today reported that terminated workers were “given few details about severance and were told they would receive more information in a week”, adding, “They said they gleaned that any severance would probably be less than what Twitter’s previous management would have paid.”

About the mass layoffs, Musk also said in his tweet, “there is no choice when the company is losing over $4M/day”. Twitter has, however, also experienced a massive revenue drop due to advertisers’ pulling back in the wake of the chaos of Musk’s layoffs and tweets of potential policy changes in recent days.

Twitter is also already facing a lawsuit surrounding its handling of layoffs. Former employees allege they were not given proper notice under US federal law; workers found out they were fired when they were locked out of their accounts on Thursday.

The lawsuit seeks to force Twitter to comply with the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (Warn) act, which requires 60 days’ notice for mass cuts at large employers.

In another late Friday tweet, Musk also claimed that “Twitter’s strong commitment to content moderation remains absolutely unchanged”. He further claimed that “we have actually seen hateful speech at times this week decline *below* our prior norms”, but Musk did not elaborate or provide specific evidence of that. Twitter was bombarded with hate speech soon after the billionaire official took over the company last week.

Updated

Twitter official confirms scale of layoffs

Twitter’s head of safety and integrity has appeared to confirm that roughly half of the company’s workforce has been cut, which would amount to an estimated 3,700 jobs.

In a tweet thread late Friday, Yoel Roth said the layoffs “affected approximately 15% of our Trust & Safety organization (as opposed to approximately 50% cuts company-wide), with our front-line moderation staff experiencing the least impact”.

With Twitter’s communications department reported to be severely cut, the company has confirmed few details formally and has not been responsive to reporters. But Roth’s comments suggest that the widely reported figure of 50% cuts companywide was accurate. He further tweeted:

With early voting underway in the US, our efforts on election integrity — including harmful misinformation that can suppress the vote and combatting state-backed information operations — remain a top priority.

He also claimed that due to “security reasons”, Twitter had “restricted access to our internal tools for some users, including some members of my team”, but added, “Most of the 2,000+ content moderators working on front-line review were not impacted, and access will be fully restored in the coming days.”

Bloomberg had reported on Monday that most people working in the trust and safety organization were unable to alter or penalize accounts breaking rules related to misleading information and hate speech, “except for the most high-impact violations that would involve real-world harm”. Those most-serious posts were “prioritized for manual enforcement”, the news site reported.

The reports of Twitter limiting its moderation tools a week before the election caused widespread concerns. Roth’s messages today did not elaborate on the “security reasons” that he said led to the restrictions.

Twitter employee warns of potential cybersecurity attacks

NBC News has a new story out on the misinformation and chaos that current and fired employees fear will infect the site surrounding the election and Elon Musk’s proposed new system for verification.

Musk has said he plans to open up verification to users who are willing to pay $8; the checkmark system previously was used as a way for the site to verify the identity of the accounts.

Some fear that the new system, which Musk is apparently rushing to implement at a time of mass layoffs, could allow for users to impersonate people and could exacerbate problems with falsehoods and disinformation spreading on the site. In the lead up to a high-stakes election, where some candidates and officials have been making false claims and sowing doubt about results, the consequences could be dire.

Some details from NBC’s reporting:

  • Three current and former employees said “they didn’t see significant enforcement mechanisms to make sure users with the verification checks are who they say they are”, with one noting, “Twitter isn’t prepared for that scale.”

  • An employee who survived the layoffs said: “I expect a ton of cybersecurity attacks on Monday.” Monday is the day that Musk is reportedly trying to launch the new verification feature, though the company hasn’t publicly confirmed this, and it’s not clear if the site can meet that deadline, given the mass cuts.

  • Laura Edelson, a postdoctoral researcher at New York University, told NBC she’d already observed an uptick in content violating Twitter rules: “​​What I think we saw is a little preview of what Twitter is like without the trust and safety team having access to the tools that they need to do their jobs. I think that’s only a preview of what we’ll see if the trust and safety team either is gutted or just doesn’t exist.”

  • A remaining Twitter employee also questioned Musk’s logic with the new verification system, telling NBC: “He thinks the bots won’t pay money, so anyone without a blue mark will be a bot, in his logic.”

Updated

Elon Musk has continued to claim that the massive drop in revenue due to advertisers fleeing the site constitutes an “attack on the first amendment”.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk, speaking at an investment conference on Friday, echoed his tweets blaming activists for pressuring companies to pause their advertisements: “We’ve done our absolute best to appease them and nothing is working.” The Journal, which noted that the first amendment’s free speech protections generally apply to the government and not private companies, reported:

Musk acknowledged that the price he paid for Twitter was “on the high side” and made a joke referencing the movie The Godfather, noting he tried to get out of the deal but “they pulled me back in”.

He also claimed that “content moderation policies have not changed at Twitter”, though civil rights groups have warned that the mass layoffs will severely impact moderation.

His final remark to the conference, according to the Journal, was a plea for people to pay for the subscription to be verified, which he said would allow users to have their tweets higher up in the feed and allow for longer videos (in addition to granting them the blue check mark): “Please use Twitter and please subscribe to Twitter verified: eight bucks. Actually it’s technically $7.99, so slightly less.”

Which teams have been laid off at Twitter?

From news reports and terminated employees’ announcements, here’s what we know so far about the teams that have been hit by the layoffs of thousands of Twitter employees:

  • The human rights team has been laid off, according to a now former employee, Shannon Raj Singh, who said the team worked to protect those at risk in global conflicts, including in Ukraine, Afghanistan and Ethiopia.

  • The ML (machine learning) Ethics, Transparency and Accountability team is gone, according to a tweet of a laid-off manager.

  • The “internet technology team”, which helps keep the site running, has been cut to “a skeleton crew”, two sources told the Times.

  • An accessibly experience engineering team has been cut, according to a laid-off engineering manager.

  • The curation team, responsible for the Moments feature on Twitter, has also been cut, former employees reported.

  • Twitter’s communications department is almost entirely gone, according to the Verge.

  • Other areas that have been heavily impacted, the Verge reported, include product trust and safety, policy, research and social good.

NAACP urges all companies to stop advertisements on Twitter

The NAACP has called for a complete advertising boycott of Twitter.

Derrick Johnson, the NAACP’s president and CEO, who met with Elon Musk on Tuesday, issued a statement urging all companies to pause ads on the platform:

It is immoral, dangerous, and highly destructive to our democracy for any advertiser to fund a platform that fuels hate speech, election denialism, and conspiracy theories. Since Elon Musk has taken over Twitter, racial slurs have spiked, and conspiracy theories have spread. When we met with Elon Musk, he made commitments that gave us cautious optimism, but until actions are taken to make Twitter a safe space, corporations cannot in good conscience put their money behind Twitter. Twitter must earn its advertisers by creating a platform that safeguards our democracy and rids itself of any content or account that spews hate and disinformation. Any account promoting hate, election denialism and any other form of mis- or disinformation cannot be allowed to return to Twitter. As we did in 2020 for Facebook, the NAACP will meet with advertisers privately to discuss their ongoing relationship with Twitter. Unlike Elon Musk’s past ventures, this one should not be rocket science.”

Updated

Some details from a New York Times report about the haphazard mass terminations:

  • The firings were reportedly so chaotic that in “one late-night meeting about the Twitter Blue subscription product, at least one worker was locked out of the company’s systems during the call”.

  • Twitter’s communications team was almost entirely laid off (and has not responded to requests for comment).

  • For fired workers, “access was cut in a staggered and seemingly arbitrary fashion”, the report said. “Some people received text messages from colleagues saying they had been logged out of some work apps but were temporarily able to open their email or work apps, before they eventually lost access, too.”

  • Some employees reportedly volunteered to be laid off if it would allow colleagues on visas to keep their jobs.

  • Fired workers reportedly have been given few details about severance, but are expecting that the package will be less generous than what previous management would have provided.

  • Four people with knowledge of the situation told the Times that an estimated 3,700 jobs (roughly half of the workforce) had been eliminated.

Updated

Eddie Perez, a former manager of Twitter’s civic integrity team, who quit in September, told the Associated Press he fears the mass layoffs so close to the midterms could allow disinformation to “spread like wildfire”, especially in the period after the election when votes are still being counted:

“I have a hard time believing that it doesn’t have a material impact on their ability to manage the amount of disinformation out there,” he said, adding that there simply may not be enough employees to beat it back.

Perez is now a board member at an election integrity nonprofit, the OSET Institute. He warned that “some candidates may not concede and some may allege election irregularities and that is likely to generate a new cycle of falsehoods”.

Updated

Elon Musk has responded to a tweet criticizing the platform’s ad system, saying he “agreed” that “Twitter has the worst ad platform of any social media company”.

The tweet he was responding to said Twitter’s “AD roi is so terrible that its virtually a black hole”.

Musk, who is overseeing mass layoffs today, said he’s “working on it”.

CNN has some details of Elon Musk’s appearance at an investment conference in New York on Friday morning, at which he largely ignored the furore over Twitter and spoke warmly of electric cars and spaceships.

In what the network says was “a friendly interview” with financier Ron Baron, a prominent shareholder of Musk’s electric car company Tesla, the billionaire spoke of his ambition to drive down the cost of his vehicles, and one day reach Mars through his SpaceX venture.

Elon Musk speaks on Friday at the Baron investment conference in Manhattan.
Elon Musk speaks on Friday at the Baron investment conference in Manhattan. Photograph: Johnny Wolf Studio/AP

In brief comments about his $44bn purchase of Twitter, Musk said: “I tried to get out of the deal,” then added, “I think there is a tremendous amount of potential… and I think it could be one of the most valuable companies in the world”.

Baron, according to CNN, said that Musk had laid off “half of Twitter” and Musk nodded, although he did not comment on the remark. He appeared to frame the layoffs as necessary for a company that, like other social media firms, was experiencing “revenue challenges” prior to his acquisition as advertisers rethink spending amid recession fears.

Musk acknowledged that “a number of major advertisers have stopped spending on Twitter” in the week since he acquired the company, but did not expand on his tweet from earlier today blaming “activist groups” for driving advertising revenue away.

Employment lawyer: Musk at risk of discrimination claims

The speed of layoffs could expose Elon Musk and Twitter to discrimination claims if it turns out they disproportionally affected women, people of color, or older workers, an employment lawyer has told the Associated Press.

Attorney Peter Rahbar, founder of the New York law firm the Rahbar Group, told the agency that most employers “take great care in doing layoffs of this magnitude”.

He said: “First, they want to make sure there is justification, and second that a nondiscriminatory process is used. And third, they want to do everything they can not to draw attention to it, for these reasons.

“For some reason, [Musk] wants to lay off half the company without doing any due diligence on what these people do or who they are and without any regards to the law”.

Twitter is already facing a class action lawsuit filed in San Francisco on Thursday by ex-employees who say they were denied the required notice period that they were about to lose their jobs.

Summary

It’s after 3pm in New York (where Elon Musk has spent much of the day) and time to take stock of what’s been happening:

  • Thousands of now former Twitter employees have learned they are being laid off as billionaire owner Elon Musk continues the transformation of his newly purchased social media titan.

  • Musk posted a tweet blaming “activist groups” for pressuring advertisers to withdraw from Twitter, causing a “massive drop in revenue”. The company appended, and later removed, a note to the post adding “context”, suggesting advertisers were concerned about the platform’s direction.

  • Scores of former employees (known as Tweeps), from numerous areas of the company, posted farewell messages, setting the hashtags #LoveWhereYouWorked and #OneTeam trending.

  • Reports suggest Musk has axed entire departments at Twitter, including the curation team moderating misinformation; a human rights team; and another responsible for machine language ethics, transparency and accountability.

  • Twitter is facing a class action lawsuit from former employees who say they were not given enough notice under US federal law that they had lost their jobs, finding out they had been let go when they were locked out of their work accounts.

Please stay with us, there’s plenty more Twitter news to come.

Updated

Here are some more tweets from former Twitter employees who now know their fate.

The first, from lawyer Shannon Raj Singh, claims that the company’s entire human rights team has been axed. Twitter has yet to confirm this.

This one, from Joan Deitchman, a former senior engineer, suggests that Twitter’s machine language (ML) ethics, transparency and accountability team has met a similar fate:

Others paint a picture of widespread departures, and a large number of people from numerous areas of the Twitter empire now looking for new beginnings.

The hashtags #lovewhereyouworked and #oneteam are trending.

Others jumped before finding out if they were to be pushed:

Updated

Here’s a handy explainer, courtesy of Reuters, about the class action lawsuit against Elon Musk and Twitter claiming that layoffs violate US and California laws if employees are not given advance notice or severance pay.

What does US law require?

The federal worker adjustment and retraining notification act (Warn) requires businesses with 100 or more employees to provide 60 days’ notice before engaging in mass layoffs, defined as those affecting at least 500 employees during a 30-day period, or at least 50 employees if layoffs impact at least one-third of a company’s workforce. Employers can provide workers with 60 days of severance pay in lieu of giving notice.

What are the penalties for violating the Warn act?

An employer can be ordered to give laidoff workers 60 days of back pay. The law also imposes penalties of $500 per violation per day. Comparable laws in California and other states impose similar penalties.

What is Twitter accused of?

The lawsuit claims Twitter locked employees out of their accounts on Thursday, signaling that they will soon lose their jobs. One of the five named plaintiffs, who is based in California, says he was terminated on 1 November without notice or severance pay. It is not clear if Twitter is paying severance to workers who lose their jobs.

The plaintiffs say they are concerned that Twitter will ask workers targeted for layoffs to sign releases waiving their ability to sue in exchange for modest severance pay.

Have other Elon Musk-owned businesses been sued under the Warn act?

Tesla Inc was sued in Texas federal court in June following an abrupt nationwide purge of its workforce, including 500 layoffs at a factory in Sparks, Nevada.

The law firm behind that case, Boston-based Lichten & Liss-Riordan, also represents the Twitter workers who sued on Thursday. The firm did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Tesla has said it was merely “right-sizing” by firing poorly performing workers and not engaging in layoffs that required advance notice.

Read more:

Civil liberties groups: Musk 'reneged' on content moderation promises

Leaders of two civil liberties groups who sat with Elon Musk earlier this week say he has gone back on the commitments he made in the meeting.

On a Friday call in which advocacy groups urged brands to pull advertising from Twitter in response to mass employee layoffs, Color of Change president Rashad Robinson and Free Press co-chief executive Jessica González said they left their conversation with Musk believing he was genuine in his commitment to be transparent about content moderation policy changes as well as to keep election integrity policies in place.

But Robinson and González both say his actions have betrayed his words. Specifically, González said Musk assured the advocacy groups, including the Anti-Defamation League and National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, that those responsible for election moderation would regain access to the proper tools by Friday.

González said:

Today’s Friday. And instead a lot of those people are gone. So I don’t have a lot of confidence that we can trust what he says.

We’re escalating our call to advertisers because he’s shown in the past few days that he’s not gonna live up to his promises. These cuts alone indicate that he cannot moderate content.

Rashad Robinson.
Rashad Robinson. Photograph: Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters

Robinson countered Musk’s assertion that advertisers were pulling out because of group activism:

The impulse control of this chief executive is simply not at the level that any advertiser should trust with their brand. Elon Musk is the reason why these companies are making this choice. We are simply helping to expose, shine a light and provide an opportunity.

Media Matters president Angelo Carusone said Musk’s claim that advertisers pulling out was akin to an attack on free speech was a dangerous precedent:

He’s signaling to [brands] that... he will use the Twitter platform and megaphone that he had and direct the same ire that a lot of the individuals on this call demonstrated they’re concerned about toward those companies.

This tweet from fired employee Aakash Raina would appear to confirm Elon Musk has fired at least some members of Twitter’s content moderation team.

It also directly contradicts the billionaire Twitter owner’s assertion in his own tweet earlier Friday that “nothing has changed with content moderation”.

Elon Musk has been busy this morning at an investment conference in New York city, talking economics and finance as thousands of his Twitter employees were waiting to learn their fate.

The billionaire entrepreneur was at the 29th annual Baron investment conference in Manhattan, chatting with the company’s chairman and chief executive Ron Baron, a prominent shareholder of Musk’s electric car company Tesla.

Baron Capital Group chairman and chief executive Ron Baron interviews Elon Musk in New York on Friday morning.
Baron Capital Group chairman and chief executive Ron Baron interviews Elon Musk in New York on Friday morning. Photograph: AP

We don’t yet know how their discussion went, but according to Baron in an appearance on CNBC Thursday he indicated they would talk about Tesla, SpaceX, and Musk’s provision of Starlink internet service to Ukraine as it fights the country’s invasion by Russia.

Baron said he supported Musk’s vision for Twitter, including today’s lay-off of thousands of workers.

Elon Musk arrives at the Baron investment conference in Manhattan, jogging into the building via a side door.
Elon Musk arrives at the Baron investment conference in Manhattan, jogging into the building via a side door. Photograph: Andrew Kelly/Reuters

Updated

Twitter safety watchdog adds 'context' to Musk's 'activist groups' post

Without any discernible hint of irony, Twitter has added “context” to Elon Musk’s earlier tweet accusing “activist groups” of pressuring advertisers to withdraw from his newly acquired social media platform, leading to a “massive drop in revenue”.

The note appended to Musk’s tweet adds links to three news articles referring to “advertisers suspending or canceling ad buys over concern with Twitter platform direction” rather than pressure from any outside entities seeking to exert influence.

Twitter has added 'context' to Elon Musk’s tweet.
Twitter has added 'context' to Elon Musk’s tweet. Photograph: @elonmusk/Twitter

Twitter’s own “watchdog”, @twittersafety, informs users that “context” is sometimes added to a post when “potentially misleading content” is present.

We wait to learn if Musk will react to being pulled up by the tech behemoth he now owns.

Updated

A former senior community manager at Twitter has told the Guardian how he learned of his dismissal, by data on his laptop suddenly being wiped, one hour after he finished what turned out to be his final shift.

Simon Balmain, who worked for the company for about a year, liaising primarily with clients on the US west coast, said he was “shocked, but not surprised” at the sudden job cuts:

I had finished work but still had my laptop open, and we all received an email from the company about a reduction in head count. An hour after that, my laptop flashed and was wiped, I no longer had access to my apps.

Balmain said that reports of the firing of Twitter’s anti-disinformation curation team “poses real risks going forward”. He added:

I’ve spoken to a few people in the same position as me and what is very apparent is we had a very good corporate culture and people have been really looking out for each other, including former employees who have reached out and offered support.

Balmain believes Twitter will focus on two strategies to make money: products that users pay for, such as Twitter Blue and the $8 monthly fee Musk has floated for user verification; and creative projects where users pay other users, such as celebrities or influencers.

Read more:

Updated

Here’s our latest report of Friday’s Twitter developments, including Elon Musk’s claim that “activist groups pressuring advertisers” are responsible for a “massive drop in revenue” since he bought the company.

Twitter employees have told us that they’ve been locked out of their work laptops and email accounts, and there are reports from inside the company that Musk has fired the platform’s entire curation team.

As my colleague Dan Milmo explains, the curation team “plays a key role in coverage of ‘civic integrity’ events such as elections, breaking news and sports, ensuring users have vetted information presented as moments, trends and topics products. It is viewed internally as a key filter against misleading posts”.

Read the full report here:

While we wait for news of the extent of today’s lay-offs, here’s an eye-opening employee’s account of life within the new-look Twitter bubble following its takeover by Elon Musk, as reported by Business Insider.

It tells of purges of staff that have already taken place; team leaders forming their own cliques; a menacing atmosphere from “prowling” managers; and individuals quickly sucking up to their new boss despite having never met him.

The insider says:

It’s been nuts to me to see this small faction of newly-minted Elon acolytes suddenly rise up and try to make their voices heard. The amount of ass-kissing and the amount of bizarre Reddit, 4-chan-style stuff like “oh Elon, I’ll be your right hand” on Blind, during those first days after the transaction closed — it was terrifying.

I thought, ‘I don’t want to work with these clowns’.

The employee adds that he’s heard stories of people being asked to work “literally around the clock”, and engineers asked to stay on call over the weekend and asked to do things immediately, “at three or four in the morning”.

“I can’t keep doing this. I’ve started interviewing elsewhere,” the employee says.

Business Insider notes that Twitter did not respond to a request for comment.

Report: Musk fires Twitter curation team tackling misinformation

There’s as-yet unverified speculation that Elon Musk has fired Twitter’s curation team, which is responsible for countering misinformation posted to the social media network.

The claim comes (on Twitter, naturally) from Richie Assaly, a digital producer for the Toronto Star, who says he previously worked as a member of the curation team.

Assaly says team “leads, management and curators are all posting that they’ve been fired”.

The move, if true, “will make Twitter noisier, more dangerous & less interesting”, he asserts.

Musk, in his tweet blaming “activist groups” for pressuring advertisers to withdraw from Twitter, causing a “massive” drop in revenue, insisted: “nothing has changed with content moderation”.

Updated

Musk: Twitter revenue has slumped as "activist groups pressure advertisers"

Elon Musk has tweeted that Twitter has seen a slump in revenue due to “activist groups” putting pressure on advertisers.

He says:

“Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists,.”

It’s true that some major companies have put advertising on pause, such as General Mills and General Motors, and now Volkswagen.

But as my colleague Kari Paul writes, that reflects concerns about how Musk will run Twitter:

The growing exodus of advertisers comes amid concerns Musk will scale back misinformation and security protections on the platform. As civil rights groups call potential moderation issues into question, companies are considering whether staying on Twitter might tarnish their brands.

Shortly before taking over the San Francisco company last week, Musk issued a vow to advertisers that he would not allow Twitter to become a “free-for-all hellscape,” an indication there would still be consequences for violators of its rules against harassment, violence or election and Covid-related misinformation.

But since then some users have posted racial slurs and recirculated long-debunked conspiracy theories in an apparent attempt to see if the site’s policies were still being enforced. The NAACP said this week it has expressed to Musk its concerns about “the dangerous, life-threatening hate and conspiracies that have proliferated on Twitter” under his watch.

Twitter employees have been using the hashtag #OneTeam to announce they’ve lost their jobs, or to support each other. Some staff have reported losing access to internal systems, so couldn’t message goodbyes to colleagues.

Twitter users have been expressing support too:

The floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
The floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Photograph: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Wall Street has opened higher, after the US jobs report bolstered hopes that interest rate rises could slow.

The Dow Jones industrial average has gained 1.3%, or 406 points, to 32,407, with the tech-focused Nasdaq up 1.1%.

The rise in the US unemployment rate, to 3.7%, and the slowdown in annual pay growth to 4.7% seems to be supporting hopes that the Federal Reserve could deliver smaller rate hikes in the future.

The dollar has dropped sharply, pushing the pound up by one and a half cents to $1.132, recovering most of yesterday’s losses.

Shares are roaring higher in London too, with the FTSE 100 up over 2%. Mining stocks are surging, as a weaker dollar pushes up commodity prices and could help global growth.

A member of security staff at Twitter’s Europe, Middle East and Africa headquarters in Dublin has told reporters that nobody was coming into the office on Friday and employees had been told to stay home, Reuters reports.

Another member of security staff locked the revolving doors at the front of the building where around 500 members of staff worked before the layoffs began.

The company’s office in Piccadilly Circus, London, appeared deserted on Friday, with no employees in sight.

The UK headquarters of Twitter in central London.
The UK headquarters of Twitter in central London. Photograph: Henry Nicholls/Reuters

Biden: Jobs recovery remains strong

US president Joe Biden says the US jobs recovery remains strong, following today’s better-than-expected employment report.

October’s Non-Farm Payrolls was the last healthcheck on America’s labor market before the mid-term elections next week. Biden has reminded voters that the economy has been adding jobs steadily on his watch.

Biden says:

Today’s jobs report – adding 261,000 jobs with the unemployment rate still at a historically low 3.7% — shows that our jobs recovery remains strong.

With jobs now added every single month of my presidency, a record setting 10 million job increase, a record 700,000 manufacturing jobs added which puts us at 137,000 more manufacturing jobs than we had before the pandemic, historically low Black and Hispanic unemployment rates, the gross domestic product increasing, and incomes on the way up, one thing is clear: while comments by Republican leadership sure seem to indicate they are rooting for a recession, the US economy continues to grow and add jobs even as gas prices continue to come down.

Biden also pledges to “do what it takes to bring inflation down”, but won’t accept that the problem is too many Americans are finding good jobs.

Updated

What's changed at Twitter, and Musk might do next

Musk is keen to prevent an exodus of advertisers as he shakes up Twitter, my colleague Dan Milmo explains:

Given that ads account for 90% of the company’s revenue, the Tesla CEO needs to keep them onside while he tries to boost income via other initiatives. To that end, he sent a message to advertisers as the takeover was being finalised, saying he would not let the site become a hotbed of hate speech.

“Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences,” he said. Advertisers have, nonetheless, gone on pause.

General Mills, the company behind the Cheerios and Lucky Charms cereals, said it would suspend advertising on Twitter, joining the car firms General Motors and Audi in monitoring changes at the company before deciding whether to resume. The pharmaceutical company Pfizer has reportedly paused its advertising, too.

Here’s a full breakdown of what’s happening at the social media site:

Volkswagen tells brands to pause paid advertising on Twitter

German carmaker Volkswagen has joined the ranks of companies deciding to pause paid advertising on Twitter, following Elon Musk’s takeover.

Volkswagen said today it had recommended to its brands to pause paid advertising, explaining:

“We are closely monitoring the situation and will decide about next steps depending on its evolvement”

Volkswagen’s brands include VW, Seat, Cupra, Audi, Lamborghini, Bentley, Ducati and Porsche.

Fellow car maker General Motors and Cheerios-maker General Mills have also said they are pausing advertising on Twitter while they evaluated the situation.

Musk has promised advertisers he would keep Twitter from turning into a ‘free-for-all hellscape’, but there are concerns that misinformation on the platform could increase, especially if banned accounts are reinstated.

Updated

In more retail news – UK department store chain John Lewis has announced that it’s launched its Black Friday deals today, over a fortnight earlier than last year, in a bid to help its customers “spread the cost of Christmas” amid the cost of living crisis.

However, the first promotions are only valid for some technology products and some fragrances, while discounts on fashion, beauty and homeware will be unveiled in the coming days.

Kathleen Mitchell, John Lewis’s commercial director, said:

“We know that, despite the rising cost of living, our customers still want to celebrate Christmas, so our teams and suppliers have worked incredibly hard to make sure we can offer our customers great value deals on the products they love.”

The retailer said it’s also hiring an additional 6,000 temporary workers - 2,000 of whom will work in its shops over the busy festive period and 4,000 in its distribution network.

Black Friday promotions once traditionally took place on the final Friday in November, the day after the US Thanksgiving holiday. But it has spread, and John Lewis’s are set to last for the best part of a month this year, with many running until 1st December, as it looks to get shoppers to spend.

Other retailers are already looking towards Christmas, with the first festive ads hitting TV sets:

Mike Ashley boosts Hugo Boss stake

The logo of German fashion house Hugo Boss

Back in Europe, Mike Ashley’s shopping spree continues unabated.

The billionaire retailer’s sportswear and fashion business Frasers Group has just informed the stock market that it has further increased its stake in the German fashion house Hugo Boss, taking its maximum exposure to the company to appoximately €1bn (£874m).

Frasers now has a 4.3% direct holding of Hugo Boss shares, combined with an additional 30% through the sale of financial instruments known as put options.

It comes less than a fortnight since Frasers last told investors it had increased its stake in Hugo Boss, at that time increasing its exposure to €960m.

In recent weeks, Frasers has also increased its stake in the online fashion retailer Asos to reach 5%, making it the company’s fourth-largest investor.

Ashley stepped down last month from the board of Frasers Group, after 40 years at the helm, and a few months after installing his son-in-law Michael Murray as the company’s chief executive.

However, Ashley remains the company’s controlling shareholder, with a near-70% stake, and he continues to act as an adviser to the board and senior management.

Richard Flynn, managing director at Charles Schwab UK, fears US unemployment will continue to rise as the Fed fight inflation:

“Today’s strong jobs figures indicate that the US economy is still running faster than the Fed might hope, increasing the likelihood that the central bank will continue to raise interest rates through into 2023.

Officials have been quite vocal about their intention to loosen the labour market to tame inflation. Their goal is to decrease the number of job openings without increasing unemployment. However, the margin for success continues to fade as interest rates climb.

“Even though many may be hoping for weaker jobs reports in the near term, there will come a point at which weaker reports won’t be celebrated. The employment market is a lagging economic indicator, meaning recent interest rate hikes will take months to feed into future jobs reports. There is a risk that increasing unemployment becomes the price for a return to lower inflation.”

Here’s a good breakdown of the US jobs report, from Kathy Jones, managing director at the Schwab Center for Financial Research.

Updated

On an annual basis, US wage growth slowed a little in October – which may suggest inflation pressures are easing.

Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings increased by 4.7%, down from 5% a month ago.

That means Americans continued to face real wage cuts, with inflation running at 8.5% per year.

But, it would be welcomed by the US Federal Reserve as it tries to avoid crashing the US economy with higher interest rates.

There were “notable job gains” for Americans in health care, professional and technical services, and manufacturing last month, the Bureau for Labor Statistics reports.

For example:

  • Professional and technical services added 43,000 jobs in October.

  • Manufacturing added 32,000 jobs in October, mostly in durable goods industries (+23,000).

  • Employment in social assistance increased by 19,000 in October and is slightly below (-9,000) its prepandemic level in February 2020

  • Wholesale trade added 15,000 jobs in October.

  • There were 35,000 new jobs in leisure and hospitality, with accommodation adding 20,000 jobs.

US beats forecasts with 261k extra jobs last month

Just in: the US economy added 261,000 jobs in October, more than forecast, in a sign that America’s labor market remains pretty robust.

The latest Non-Farm Payroll jobs report beat expectations, despite the pressure from high inflation and rising interest rates. Economists had forecast a rise of around 200,000 jobs.

Average hourly earnings rose by 0.4% month-on-month, more than the 0.3% expected.

And September’s report has been revised up, to show 315,000 new hires, from 263,000 first estimated.

But, the unemployment rate has risen to 3.7%, from 3.5%, with the number of unemployed people rising by 306,000 to 6.1 million

Updated

Britain not scrapping Sizewell C nuclear plan, says PM spokesman

Prime minister Rishi Sunak’s spokesman has denied that Britain’s Sizewell C nuclear power plant project is to be scrapped.

He told reporters that negotiations on the plant’s funding are progressing, after the BBC reported it was under review (see earlier post) and could be delayed or even scrapped.

Asked if the government was scrapping Sizewell C, the spokesman said (via Reuters):

“No ... it is not accurate to say we are scrapping it. Our position on Sizewell C has not changed.”

“We hope to get a deal over the line as soon as possible. There are negotiations ongoing. I can’t get into detail of those, but negotiations have been constructive.

Updated

Caterers, cleaners, security guards, reception workers and post and porterage staff at the UK’s business department are to hold five days of strike action.

Members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union working at the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy in London will strike in a dispute over pay and health and safety.

PCS members will take action on November 16, 23 and 30, and December 7 and 14.

The catering staff are striking in a pay dispute with their employer Aramark, while the remaining staff are taking action against their employer ISS over health and safety protocols.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said:

“A recent survey showed a third of our members were skipping meals because they couldn’t afford to buy food, so it would be no surprise if these hard-working caterers would struggle to afford the food they serve to others.

“We demand they receive an above-inflation pay rise to help them through the cost-of-living crisis and beyond.”

Updated

UK government borrowing costs have risen after a Bank of England official suggested it could start to sell some of the bonds it bought to prevent financial collapse after the mini-budget.

Reuters has the details:

Andrew Hauser, the BoE’s executive director for markets, told a European Central Bank conference that the BoE wanted to unwind the purchases in a timely and orderly way, and hoped to say more in the next week or two.

Asked if sales could begin before the end of the year, he did not rule this out.

The price of 30-year UK bonds has dropped, which pushed up the yield (or interest rate) on the debt to 3.81%, from 3.68% last night. That’s slightly above its levels on the day before the mini-budget.

The 30-year gilt yield soared over 5% after the now-reversed unfunded tax cuts were announced, forcing the Bank to step in to protect pension funds who were caught in an asset fire sale.

Back in the City, the pound is on track for its worst week against the US dollar since the mini-budget rocked markets six weeks ago.

Sterling has lost four cents, or 3.5%, against the dollar this week, as the monetary policy divide between the US and UK widened.

Both country’s central banks raised interest rates by 75 basis points this week. But while the Bank of England tried to dampen expectations of further large increases, Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell said US interest rates would peak at a higher level than expected.

US attorney Lisa Bloom also believes Twitter isn’t complying with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act:

UK builders report first fall in new orders since May 2020

UK construction companies have been hit by the first drop in new orders since the first wave of the pandemic in spring 2020.

Some firms blamed heightened political uncertainty for the drop in new work in October – a month in which borrowing costs surged after the UK’s mini-budget rocked markets.

Business confidence fell sharply too, to the lowest for almost two-and-a half years, the latest survey of purchasing managers by S&P Global Insight shows.

But overall, the sector kept growing as firms started new projects or continued existing work.

Updated

Prospect Union: Twitter can't act like a digital P&O Ferries

UK union Prospect are appalled by the way that Twitter’s staff are being treated, as Elon Musk begins mass job cuts.

Prospect, which represents technology workers, compared it to the notorious sudden mass sacking of 800 workers by P&O Ferries this year, which provoked anger among the public and MPs.

Mike Clancy, general secretary of Prospect union, said:

“Twitter is treating its people appallingly.

“These are people who have invested their time, effort and enthusiasm in building the platform, which risks being thrown away.

“The government must make clear to Twitter’s new owners that we won’t accept a digital P&O and that no-one is above the law in the UK, including Big Tech barons. That must include making sure UK staff’s full employment rights are properly protected.

“We are supporting our members at Twitter and will be working with them to defend them and their livelihoods.

Updated

Full story: Twitter sued by former staff as Elon Musk begins mass sackings

Twitter is facing a class action lawsuit from former employees who say they were not given enough notice under US federal law that they had lost their jobs, finding out they had been let go when they were locked out of their work accounts on Thursday.

In a company-wide memo, staff were informed on Thursday that they would receive an email to their personal email accounts if they were being fired as part of the mass sackings at the platform in which up to half of the company could go.

Before those emails arrived, dozens of staff began posting on Twitter that they had been fired – after discovering they were no longer able to access their work email accounts or log into their work laptops.

Musk’s plans to cut up to 3,700 staff may hit a roadblock, however, after a lawsuit was filed in the US federal court in San Francisco seeking orders for Twitter to comply with the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, which requires 60 days’ notice for mass sackings at large employers.

The lawsuit, brought on behalf of five Twitter employees so far, says one was fired on 1 November, while three were not informed at the time of filing but had been locked out of their email accounts.

The case cited a similar situation with sackings at Musk’s other company, Tesla, where the company sought to obtain full release from its obligations under the Warn Act by offering severance of one or two weeks’ pay instead.

More here:

Hundreds of Heathrow workers to strike in run-up to World Cup

A Qatar Airways check-in at Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport.

Hundreds of workers at Heathrow airport in London are to hold a three-day walkout later this month, which could disrupt flights to the soccer World Cup finals in Qatar.

The Unite union has announced that 700 workers, who are involved in ground-handling, airside transport and cargo, will take three days of strike action beginning on Friday 18 November, in a dispute over pay.

The staff are employed by Dnata and Menzies at Heathrow.

Unite says the strike action will lead to “disruption, cancellations and delays” at Heathrow terminals 2, 3 and 4, adding:

The strike action will particularly affect Qatar Airways, which has scheduled an additional 10 flights a week during the World Cup.

The strike could also cause disruption to passengers returning to the United States for the Thanksgiving holiday, on Thursday 24th November.

Other leading airlines that will be hit heavily include Virgin, Singapore Airlines, Cathay-Pacific and Emirates, the union predicts.

Unite says Dnata has offered its workers a 5% increase, while Menzies has offered workers between 2% and 6%.

Unite regional officer Kevin Hall said:

“Strike action will inevitably cause disruption, delays and cancellations to flights throughout Heathrow, with travellers to the World Cup particularly affected.

However, this dispute is entirely of Dnata and Menzies own making. They have had every opportunity to make a fair pay offer but have chosen not to do so.”

UK car sales on course for weakest year since 1982

UK car sales jumped by a quarter last month, new figures show, despite the rising squeeze on household incomes.

New registrations rose by 26% year-on-year to 134,344 units in October, the SMMT reports.

Sales were lifted by growing demand for hybrid (MHEV) cars which combine a combustion engine with an electric battery.

But despite this increase, the SMMT expects 2022 to be the worst year for car sales in four decades.

It says:

Ongoing supply chain shortages, surging inflation and a growing cost of living crisis have led to a -2.2% downward revision of the market outlook for the year, with 1.566 million registrations now anticipated.

This puts 2022 on course to be the market’s toughest year since 1982.

SMMT Chief Executive Mike Hawes adds:

“A strong October is hugely welcome, albeit in comparison with a weak 2021, but it is still not enough to offset the damage done by the pandemic and subsequent supply shortages,”

Many of the people who received new cars in October will have ordered them some time ago, due to the supply chain disruption that slowed production.

Ian Plummer, Auto Trader director, reports that more people are buying cars on credit – even though borrowing rates have risen.

“As the broader cost of living crisis impacts consumers, demand for cars has begun to flatten and we’re seeing an increasing number of consumers turn to finance. Finance searches have never been so high on Auto Trader with search volume up 43% on pre-pandemic levels and up 8% compared with the highs of 2021, showing that many people are looking to spread the cost as budgets are tightened. Currently, we’re seeing that finance rates for new cars are climbing much faster than used cars.

“It’s worth flagging that consumers already in finance agreements won’t see any increases until the end of their contract so will be shielded, at least for now, from the immediate effects of these rises.”

But, of course, they will face a jump when they try to refinance.

Updated

Bank of England chief economist Huw Pill has also warned that recent interest rate hikes will slow the economy, to tame inflation.

He told CNBC this morning:

“(The) slowdown in the economy is what we anticipate is required to contain domestic inflationary pressures to achieve our targets.

[In practice, that will mean higher unemployment, less pressure for wage rises (the Bank thinks) and less disposable income for households whose credit card bills and mortgages rise.]

Pill added that recent months have been turbulent.

“I think we’ve had a clearly quite disturbed period in the UK markets, in the UK political economy, in the UK economy over the last few months.

(We’re) trying to re-anchor our own thinking in the more fundamental drivers ... I think we’re trying to re-anchor our communication.”

Some Twitter workers found they’ve already been shut out of their email and Slack accounts, even before any official confirmation that they’ve lost, or kept, their jobs.

Simon Balmain, a senior community manager for Twitter in the UK, told the BBC that he believed he has been laid off, because he was logged out of his work laptop and Slack messaging programme.

“Everyone got an email saying that there was going to be a large reduction in headcount, and then around an hour later, folks started getting their laptops remotely wiped and access to Slack and Gmail revoked.

Mark Carney: next few years will be tougher

Former Bank of England governor Mark Carney has warned that the next few years will be tough in the UK, with Brexit partly to blame.

He told Radio 4’s Today Programme:

As we all know, it’s a difficult period, and it will get tougher for the next few years.

But, there is a prospect in the Bank’s judgement…. that inflation will be under control.

The “very difficult reality” is that the Bank of England wants to slow the pace of the UK economy, Carney continues (to push down inflation and stop it becoming embedded).

He says higher energy prices have slowed the pace at which the UK economy can grow. Covid has changed the labour market which also hurts growth capacity (more people aren’t able to work due to ill health or caring responsibilities)

“And then of course, in the UK unfortunately we’ve also had this near-term impact of Brexit, which has slowed the pace at which the economy can grow”, Carney adds.

Carney also stuck to his recent warning that Brexit had shrunk the UK economy:

Updated

BoE chief economist: we're trying to curb inflation while limiting pain

The Bank of England is trying to get inflation under control without doing too much damage to the UK economy, its chief economist says.

Huw Pill told CNBC that the Bank’s monetary policy committee is aiming to balance getting inflation down to 2%, without slowing growth too severely.

Pill explained:

“What we are seeking to do, we’re always seeking to do, is to find that balance that gets us back to our 2% inflation target without generating unnecessary and costly problems in the real side of the economy.

“Creating that balance, signalling that balance, that was really our key message yesterday.”

The Bank’s latest forecasts, released yesterday, showed that inflation would fall below its 2% target by mid-2024 even if interest rates stay at their new rate of 3%.

It would fall more sharply, and the recession would be worse – two years long - if rates roses to over 5%.

Updated

Key event

Stock markets are rallying today, amid speculation that China might relax its Covid rules soon.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index, which has had a torrid year, jumped 5%, while China’s CSI 300 index is up over 3%. European indices have opened around 0.7% higher.

Sophie Lund-Yates, lead equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, explains:

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has gained confidence, rising around 6%, on rumours China could relax its strict Covid policies.

This is likely to spread across to more positive momentum in the UK too. China’s impenetrable policies have caused a great deal of economic pain, both inside and outside the country. Supply chains, manufacturing and demand have all come under very serious pressure. Any indication that some rules could be relaxed would be an immediate dose of grease in the jarring cogs of China’s economy.

An unverified screenshot circulating on social media this week claimed that a broad reopening plan was being considered, which drove up stocks – although China’s top health body has reaffirmed its commitment to the zero-tolerance virus approach.

In London, mining stocks are driving the FTSE 100 higher – with the blue-chip index up 45 points to 7,234 points.

Reminder: Twitter now owes roughly $1bn a year in interest payments on the debt which Elon Musk accrued when buying it, which is why he is seeking savings:

This is also a good point:

Non-dom tax breaks being reviewed by the Treasury in effort to raise revenue

Treasury officials are examining whether the autumn statement could include changes to non-dom status and moves to raise taxes on dividends by cutting tax-free allowances.

No final decisions have been taken but Whitehall sources said options were being examined by the Treasury’s high net worth individuals policy team, my colleagues Juliette Garside and Jessica Elgot report.

Changes could include reducing the time period over which high net worth individuals can avoid tax on their worldwide income. Experts suggest that cutting the duration from 15 to five years could raise an additional £1.6bn a year.

The chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, is also looking at cutting the tax-free threshold for shareholders’ earnings from dividends from its current level of £2,000 – though a more ambitious move would be to increase the percentage of tax paid at the three thresholds, the highest of which is just under 40%.

The Daily Telegraph reports that Hunt is also considering an increase in the headline rate of capital gains tax (CGT), to help plug the £50bn hole in Britain’s public finances.

German factory orders slump

German industrial orders have fallen more than expected in September, adding to fears that Europe’s largest economy is sliding into recession.

New orders at German factories fell by 4.0% month-on-month, including a 7% tumble in foreign orders. Analysts had expected a much smaller fall, to 0.5%.

Orders for heavy duty capital goods (such as machinery) fell 6%, while demand for intermediate goods used to make products were down 3.4%, as the world economy slowed.

Falls in UK mortgage rates predicted

An estate agent's in London, Britain
An estate agent's in London, Britain Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

Banks and building societies are expected to cut the costs of UK fixed-rate mortgages a little, despite Thursday’s large interest rate hike from the Bank of England.

The current high costs of fixed rates were set when markets had expected aggressive future rises in the base rate – but expectations had already subsided as the turmoil in the borrowing markets eased.

So with the Bank now pushing back against market expectations, mortgages could become a little cheaper, having surged since the mini-budget.

Simon Gammon, managing partner at mortgage broker Knight Frank Finance, said (via the FT):

“We are expecting fixed rates to continue to fall back slightly — they are still overpriced because lenders don’t have an appetite for a lot of fixed-term lending right now, but with a period of stability, you can expect that to change.”

David Hollingworth, director at L&C Mortgages, said:

“Lenders could see their way to dropping fixed rates back a little bit. There’s more scope for them to do that.”

More here: Falls in UK mortgage rates predicted as BoE signals dovish outlook

BBC: Sizewell new nuclear plant and high speed Northern rail under review

EDF’s Sizewell B nuclear power station in Sizewell, England.
EDF’s Sizewell B nuclear power station in Sizewell, England. Photograph: WPA/Getty Images

The Sizewell C nuclear power plant in Suffolk is reportedly under review as the Government looks to cut spending to fill the UK’s fiscal ‘black hole’.

The new reactor, located some 30 miles north-east of Ipswich, was expected to be built by energy firm EDF.

Boris Johnson had promised £700 million of taxpayers’ money to the project in his final policy speech in early September as he sought to make energy security part of his legacy as prime minister.

But a Government official has now told the BBC:

“We are reviewing every major project - including Sizewell C.”

The 3.2 gigawatt power station is planned to sit alongside the existing Sizewell B nuclear reactor on the Suffolk coast, and could generate electricity for 6m homes for up to 60 years.

Former PM Liz Truss’s pledge to build a major rail scheme in northern England in full could also be scaled back.

This high-speed link was expected to eventually connecting Northern towns and cities from Hull to Liverpool, through Bradford.

But the plans for the rail line - known as Northern Powerhouse Rail - are now expected to be reduced.

Business secretary Grant Shapps told the BBC:

The line itself can deliver a 33-minute journey from Manchester to Leeds, quadruple nearly the capacity of that line, and do so without having to wait an extra 20 years beyond the delivery of what the upgrade can do.

“There wasn’t really much point in going and blasting new tunnels through the Pennines.

“It’s not true to say we’re not delivering on what we said we would do on levelling up the north.”

Here’s the full story: Sizewell new nuclear plant under review

Updated

Twitter sued for mass layoffs by Musk without enough notice

Twitter is being sued over Elon Musk’s plan to eliminate about 3,700 jobs at the social-media platform, Bloomberg reports.

A class-action lawsuit was filed Thursday in San Francisco federal court, arguing that the company is violating federal and California law by not giving enough notice.

Here’s the details:

The federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act restricts large companies from mounting mass layoffs without at least 60 days of advance notice.

The lawsuit asks the court to issue an order requiring Twitter to obey the WARN Act, and restricting the company from soliciting employees to sign documents that could give up their right to participate in litigation.

“We filed this lawsuit tonight in an attempt the make sure that employees are aware that they should not sign away their rights and that they have an avenue for pursuing their rights,” Shannon Liss-Riordan, the attorney who filed Thursday’s complaint, said in an interview.

Updated

Introduction: Twitter mass layoffs begin

Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.

It’s a grim day for Twitter staff, as Elon Musk will begin mass job cuts just a week after acquiring the social media platform.

The social network’s offices are temporarily closed, while staff wait to learn by email whether they’ve been retained, or fired. Around half the company’s workforce could be laid off.

The company said in an email to staff on Thursday.

“In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce on Friday.

Musk already fired several top Twitter executives, including CEO Parag Agrawal, finance chief, Ned Segal, and legal affairs and policy chief, Vijaya Gadde.

Having bought Twitter for $44bn, Musk is now trying to make the company profitable.

On Thursday, Musk directed Twitter’s teams to free up $1bn in annual infrastructure cost savings by slashing funding for cloud services and servers. He has floated a number of ideas to make profit at Twitter, including a plan to charge for “verified” badges, and creating an “everything app” that would combine several platforms into one.

Also coming up today

Households and businesses are digesting the Bank of England’s warning that Britain faces its longest recession since the 1920s if interest rates soared as high as markets had predicted.

But the BoE also pushed back against those expectations yesterday, even as it announced its largest interest rate rise for three decades, to 3%.

The latest US jobs report will be closedly watched, for any signs that America’s employment market is weakening.

Economists predict around 200,000 new jobs were created in October, down from 263,000 in September. A slowdown in hiring, and wage growth, could be a signal that the high inflation gripping the US economy might soon begin to ease.

US non-farm payroll forecasts

A court ruling could decide whether taxi firms outside London should be forced to pat VAT on their journeys, which could push up prices by 20%.

A ruling is expected to be handed down today after the ride-sharing app sued Sefton council in Merseyside over VAT terms for operators outside London.

We also find out how many new cars were sold in the UK last month, and how building firms fared.

The agenda

  • 7am BST: German factory orders for September

  • 9am GMT: UK car sales for October

  • 9.30am GMT: UK construction PMI report

  • 12.15pm: Bank of England chief economist Huw Pill holds a National Agency briefing on yesterday’s monetary policy report

  • 12.30pm GMT: US Non-Farm Payroll jobs report

Updated

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