College review site Niche lays off 7% of staff
Niche, the Strip District-based software company that hosts reviews of college campuses, cut jobs across its organization last week — a 7% reduction lowering its total headcount to 320 employees.
Five workers based in Pittsburgh were included in the cuts, the company confirmed Tuesday.
About 110 Niche employees are based in Pittsburgh.
“As a growing company, we regularly look deeply and thoughtfully at our strategic priorities and what resources are needed to achieve those goals,” Niche said in a statement, calling the layoffs a “difficult decision.”
Impacted employees were notified on March 4 and their last official day was March 8, the company said. Based on the number of impacted roles, notices through the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act were not required.
Impacted employees received severance, continuation of benefits and career transition assistance, the company said. Niche said it will continue to hire new roles and remains “highly confident in the long-term potential of our business and our strategy.”
The company had six open positions, all remote, listed on LinkedIn.
Niche is known for its signature review site, Niche.com, which gives colleges “report card” scores for traits like diversity, safety and value, based on Yelp-like reviews. It also hosts reviews for K-12 schools and neighborhoods.
Aspinwall, for instance, is rated the best suburb in Pittsburgh, based on schools, housing and benefits for families.
The University of Pittsburgh earns high marks on the site for its professors, location and student life, but gets a C+ for campus food.
Many prospective students use Niche to learn more about schools they might not be able to visit in
person. The site includes information about cost, financial aid and acceptance rates, and can walk students through the application process. It also has a page to help students find scholarships.
Founded as a Carnegie Mellon University spinoff in 2002, Niche started making print guidebooks under the name College Prowler. Cofounder Luke Skurman, a CMU alum, still leads the company as CEO.
In an April 2020 press release, Niche, which had just raised an additional $35 million in capital, was poised to expand during the pandemic as school tours went virtual.
The site boasted 130,000 school profiles at the time and over 140 million reviews.
Niche’s layoffs come during a difficult time for tech workers nationally, with nearly 300,000 layoffs reported in the past year alone. Locally, there have been slight cuts at Aurora and Duolingo.
The robotics firm Sarcos closed up shop in Lawrenceville last fall.
On the upswing, Massachusettsbased Excelitas Technologies Corp is relocating to the Strip District, a four-year move announced in January that promises to bring at least 250 jobs.