Salesforce Boosts Return-to-Office Mandate
Salesforce is doubling down on prior calls for its employees to return to the office, as the tech firm this month adds to planned reductions in its overall workforce.
The news site San Francisco Standard, citing an internal staff memo that it obtained, reported Wednesday that Salesforce employees under new guidelines will be required to come to the office four to five days a week effective Oct. 1. The mandate applies to workers in sales, workplace services data center engineering and onsite information technology support.
All other departments will be designated “office flex,” meaning they must come to their local office at least three days a week, and fully remote work will be permitted only on a preapproved exemption basis, the news site reported. Salesforce is also initiating an internal dashboard to track data from employee badge scans at its U.S. offices, starting next month.
San Francisco-based Salesforce confirmed to regional media this week that it plans to cut an undisclosed number of jobs, with state notification filings still pending. News outlets including Bloomberg said the number is around 300. Salesforce did not immediately respond to a request from CoStar News to comment.
Salesforce has conducted multiple rounds of job cuts during the past year as it responds to slowing customer demand for its sales-related software and services. Those included a 10% reduction in its workforce at the start of this year, as the company has also been recalibrating its real estate needs across the U.S. and overseas.
Several companies have been cutting jobs during the past year in multiple industries, including technology, media, retail and financial services, and some have also trimmed their real estate. Media giant Warner Bros. Discovery this week announced plans for nearly 1,000 job reductions as part of larger cost-cutting moves.
IMF Warns Against Trade Tariffs
A prominent global economic organization warned that new trade tariffs being discussed in the United States and other countries could push inflation higher after several months of decline while spurring central banks to keep interest rates elevated.
Researchers at the Washington, D.C.-based International Monetary Fund said the global and U.S. economies are poised for slow-but-steady growth in 2024 and 2025. But the group warned growth could be disrupted if current international trade tensions bring enhanced tariffs that in turn send inflation rates higher in the U.S. and other countries.
Presidential candidate Donald Trump has proposed a new 10% tariff on all goods imported into the U.S., with the tariff set at 60% for goods from China, in a bid to bolster sales of products made by American companies. The European Union recently placed new tariffs on imported electric vehicles made in China, which analysts said could spur retaliation by China with new fees on products coming from the EU.
“Upside risks to inflation have thus increased, raising the prospect of higher-for-even-longer interest rates, in the context of escalating trade tensions and increased policy uncertainty,” the IMF said in a report Tuesday. This comes as the U.S. Federal Reserve mulls potential cuts in its key lending rate, which could be made later this year as inflation ticks down.
The warning came as the IMF projected global growth of 3.2% for gross domestic product for 2024, unchanged from its prior forecast in April, as it raised its 2025 global growth forecast to 3.3%, up from its previous 3.2%. The organization now expects U.S. economic growth of 2.6% in 2024 and 1.9% in 2025.
Manufacturing Activity Rises
U.S. manufacturing activity edged higher in June and also for the full second quarter, despite slowing consumer and business demand in many product categories, the Federal Reserve reported Wednesday.
Based on the value of products produced, June’s activity rose 0.6% for the month in June after a 0.9% increase in May. June’s production was also 1.6% above its year-earlier level, fueled by industries that included construction, building materials and consumer products.
U.S. industrial capacity utilization rose to 78.8% in June, though that number was about one percentage point below the figure’s average for the period spanning 1972 to 2023. Research firm Oxford Economics said industrial production was uneven during this year’s first half but is expected to improve in the coming year.
“Industrial activity will steadily increase in the coming quarters thanks to a nascent rate-cutting cycle by the Federal Reserve, continued strength in defense and high-tech products, and a pickup in global growth,” Oxford Economics Lead U.S. Economist Bernard Yaros said in a statement Wednesday, noting the research firm now forecasts a 1.8% expansion in U.S. industrial production for 2025.