Moladin Layoffs Add to Growing List of Indonesian Startup Mass Firings

Mass layoffs (PHK) are happening again. This time, Moladin, a used car trading startup, laid off 360 employees, or 11% of its total workforce.

The dismissals were announced during a town hall meeting lasting only 5-10 minutes. News of the town hall meeting quickly spread on social media.

However, the Ministry of Manpower (Kemenaker) has not commented much on Moladin's mass layoffs, stating they have not yet received a report on the layoffs.

"The report might be with the local manpower agency," said Andi Awaluddin, Coordinator of the Planning, Evaluation, and Program Division of the Directorate General of Industrial Relations Development and Manpower Social Security at the Ministry of Manpower, to Katadata.co.id on Thursday (February 9).

Moladin's layoffs add to the long list of mass layoffs in the startup sector. Previously, in November 2022, GoTo laid off 1,300 employees, or 12% of its total workforce.

Shopee also conducted layoffs, reportedly dismissing 3% of its total employees, according to Kompas.com. Before Moladin, JD.ID laid off 30% of its employees, or 200 workers, in December 2022.

Some startups conducted layoffs but did not disclose the exact number, such as Ruangguru. This wave of layoffs occurred between May 2022 and February 2023.

(See also: List of the Largest Mass Layoffs by Tech Startups in 2022, Twitter Second!)

The following is a list of startups and the percentage of employees affected by layoffs, compiled from various sources:

* LinkAja: 33% or 200 employees
* JD.ID: 30% or 200 employees
* Zenius: 25% or more than 200 employees
* Tokocrypto: 20% or 45 employees
* Binar Academy: 20% of total employees
* Glints: 18% or more than 1,200 employees
* Moladin: 11% or 360 employees
* GoTo: 12% or 1,300 employees
* Mobile Premier League (MPL): 10% or 100 employees
* Koinworks: 8% or 70 employees
* Sirclo: 8% of total employees
* Sayurbox: 5% of total employees
* Xendit (Indonesia, Philippines): 5% of total employees
* Shopee: 3% of total employees
* SiCepat: 0.60% or 366 employees

(See also: West Java, Province with the Most Layoff Cases in 2022)