Tech layoffs: Even if the fundamentals have improved, technology companies have kept cutting employees in 2024. This is a current timeline of significant layoffs and the reasons behind the instability in Big Tech.
2024 was supposed to be the year of the IT industry’s revival following two years of severe layoffs at IT organisations. Although the business is showing early indications of recovery—according to Gartner predictions, worldwide IT spending will rise by 8% to surpass $5.1 trillion in 2024—jobs in the area are still being negatively impacted. A portion of the layoffs that are occurring this year are a continuation of the 2023 job cuts that were declared.
Large-scale job losses were reported by major digital corporations last year, including Amazon, Cisco, Microsoft, Google, IBM, SAP, Salesforce, and Facebook parent company Meta.
The issue: Due to lockdowns that prompted a tech buying frenzy to facilitate remote work and an increase in e-commerce, Big Tech went on a hiring spree during the epidemic. However, as a result, their revenue is now declining.
Tech layoffs in 2024
- SAP
- EBay
- Microsoft
- Alphabet
SAP announces $2.2B restructuring program that’ll impact 8,000 jobs
This week, the German enterprise software giant SAP said that a significant shift in the company’s priority to generative artificial intelligence (genAI) will “impact” 8,000 jobs.
Although the corporation has stated that many of the effects will include “voluntary leave programmes and internal re-skilling measures,” it is unknown how many of the pretentious employees will be laid off.
SAP indicated there won’t be a general reduction in headcount as a result of the reorganisation. In 2023, the corporation made about 3,000 job cuts. Analysts predict that the change will make SAP employees younger and more genAI-versed.
EBay slashes 1,000 jobs as expenses rise
Online retailer eBay announced in an official blog post that “headcount and expenses have outpaced the growth of our business,” indicating that the company intends to reduce roughly 10% of its personnel, or about 1,000 positions.
On Wednesday, the US employees of the corporation were instructed to work remotely while Zoom was utilised to conduct the layoffs. In an additional effort to control expenses, eBay announced that it will “scale back” on its work with independent contractors. According to NPR, the company let go of 500 employees last year when revenues declined following the pandemic boom.
Tech layoffs in 2023
- Broadcom
- Amazon
- Splunk
- Stack Overflow
- Qualcomm
- Meta
- Alphabet
- Cisco
- Oracle
- Red Hat
- …and more
Twilio sheds jobs in third round of layoffs
Twilo lost 300–400 employees in what was likely their third major layoff in as many months. Twilo is a cloud communications startup. Employees in the sales teams for the company’s consumer data and contact centre software were most severely impacted. In a statement, Twilo stated that the layoffs were required in order to “optimise” the company’s data, analytics, and technology division for expansion.
As a severance package, the impacted employees received 12 weeks’ salary in addition to additional compensation for each year they worked for the business. Twilo predicted that the layoffs and related severance payments would cost between $25 million and $35 million.
Broadcom to lay off over 1,200 VMware employees as deal closes
Just a few days after the massive $69 billion acquisition of VMware was finalised, 1,267 VMware employees were let go by Broadcom. Numerous stories state that VMware employees had long feared the relocation.
The majority of the impacted workers were employed by VMware in its Palo Alto offices, and additional job losses were discussed in a document submitted to the California Employment Development Department. Group vice president at IDC Stephen Elliot said that VMware’s partners and customers will likely welcome the layoffs and see them as a reorientation of the company’s activities.
‘Reposition themselves for AI’
The hoopla surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) sparked worries about how much less human labour will be needed as technology advances. However, the workforce is feeling the effects of it more immediately. The demand for AI is so high that some IT businesses are reducing staff in order to devote more resources to creating AI solutions.
According to Art Zeile, CEO of DHI group, which runs the digital job site Dice, “these companies, in general, are reducing numbers of employees associated with product lines or divisions that have not been successful because they want to reposition themselves for AI.”
Methodology
This tracker, which is updated at least weekly. Covers layoffs carried out by American corporations or those with a significant presence in the country. Both startups and publicly listed, tech-focused businesses are included.
Even though it’s unclear how much of the U.S. workforce has been affected by layoffs, we’ve included foreign-based businesses like Klarna that have a substantial staff in the country.
The workforce and layoff figures are approximations derived from reporting. The sources of the layoffs include our own reporting, social media posts, media stories, and layoffs. A crowdsourced database of tech layoffs, just so you know.
Our layoffs tracker was been updated to include the most recent wave of layoffs that each employer has carried out. This enables us to monitor layoff patterns more swiftly and precisely. Which is why our most current data may have changed.
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s meant by a layoff?
A layoff is a temporary dismissal due to insufficient work to support a full workforce. Or it can be a permanent termination for cost-saving reasons. Layoffs in the tech industry typically fall into the permanent category.
A mass layoff occurs when a corporation fires a large number of workers in a short amount of time, usually due to financial difficulties.
Will there be any more IT layoffs?
Certainly, there will probably be additional layoffs. Although there are indications that the number of layoffs is decreasing. Experts we spoke with predict that as long as big IT companies and startups face economic challenges. Job losses in the tech sector will persist.
Particularly seed and early-stage companies might keep laying people off in an effort to lengthen their financial runways amid a challenging venture funding climate.