The tariffs are hitting TikTok, with the popular social media platform informing US ecommerce employees that there would be a number of “personnel changes” in response to lower than expected sales in 2025.
It’s been a few months since President Trump announced his tariffs, which have noticeably rocked the boat for businesses around the world. From large corporations to small startups, the economic impact has been nothing if not substantial.
China-based TikTok has been particularly vulnerable to the tariff tumult, and it appears to be impacting its ability to keep its employees, well, employed.
TikTok Is Laying Off US Ecommerce Employees
According to an internal memo reported on by Bloomberg, the social media giant is making some “organizational and personnel changes” to its TikTok Shop division in the US.
The number of employees that are set to be laid off has not been disclosed nor reported on.
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“We have undergone careful analysis of how to create more efficient operating models for the team’s long-term growth and, as a result, will be communicating organizational and personnel changes to the e-Commerce US operations, US operations center, and global key accounts teams.” – Mu Qing, ecommerce executive at TikTok
US TikTok employees in the ecommerce division were asked to work from home on Wednesday “to best facilitate these conversations.”
Why Is TikTok Laying Off US Employees?
The memo, obtained by Business Insider, is quite brief considering the information within, but it’s safe to assume that the driving force behind these layoffs is the struggling sales of the TikTok Shop in the US.
So what’s causing the low sales in the TikTok shop? Well, given the fact that the US TikTok Shop features a wide range of foreign sellers based in China selling to US consumers, the tariffs have created enough economic strife to dissuade them from taking part.
The sales slump has been quite serious, with US TikTok Shop revenue from foreign sales down between 20-25%, which is likely what lead to these layoffs.
Trump Tariffs and Corporate Layoffs
TikTok is the not first nor will it be the last company with US operations to lay off employees in response to the tariffs. In fact, there are already some companies hedging their bets assuming that there is no end in sight to this trade war.
Walmart, for example, announced this week that it would be laying off 1,500 employees, on top of raising prices, even after President Trump insisted the company “eat the tariffs” to shore up economic stability.
Suffice to say, these tariffs are going to continue to have a negative impact on businesses for the foreseeable future, and mass layoffs remain the most common consequences.
