Updated on May 16:
TikTok is expected to lay off staff in its global operations and marketing division. On May 21, employees reportedly leaked the story to The Information, a tech news company.
On May 21, Pixar, a subsidiary of Disney, announced it would be laying off 14% of its staff as the company turns away from Disney+ original shows and back to feature films.
Tech companies have been consistently laying off employees since late 2022.
As of May 24, some 298 tech companies have laid off 84,600 workers in 2024, according to layoffs.fyi, which tracks job cuts in the tech industry.
» MORE: Will 2024 be a big year for layoffs?
A total of 262,682 workers in tech lost their jobs in 2023 compared with 164,969 in 2022. The volume of layoffs in 2023 — a total of 1,186 companies — also surpassed 2022, when 1,061 companies in tech laid off workers — and that total was more than in 2020 and 2021 combined.
Amazon saw the most workers laid off in 2023 (27,410 workers) followed by Meta (21,000), Google (12,115) and Microsoft (11,158).
These layoffs are a peculiar outlier in an otherwise strong employment environment: The unemployment rate has hovered between 3.4% and 3.9% since Dec. 2021, Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows.
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And quit rates — which reflect worker confidence — this year are consistently at some of the highest levels in more than 20 years, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
Employment, at large, is doing well. But when layoffs are happening in the most visible sector on the internet, you’re going to hear about it.
» MORE: Industries most likely to see layoffs
What’s going on with layoffs in tech?
The biggest tech layoffs have occurred at high-profile companies. Here are some of the biggest layoffs in tech since 2022, beginning with the most recent:
May tech layoffs
On May 16, GoPuff, a food and beverage delivery service, laid off 6% of staff at its Philadelphia headquarters.
On May 13, Indeed, a job search website based in Austin, Texas, cut 1,000 workers, or about 8% of its staff.
On May 10, Google laid off 57 workers at multiple locations in the Bay Area.
On May 6, Enovix, a silicon lithium-ion battery tech company, reported it would be laying off 170 workers — about 33% of its workforce.
On May 3, Luminar announced it would be laying off 20% of its staff — about 140 employees. The company said it would also cut ties with contract workers. The company produces lidar, a long-range sensor used in self-driving vehicles.
On May 2, fitness brand Peloton announced it is laying off 400 workers, or about 15% of its global staff. The cuts, along with other cost-cutting moves like closing retail showrooms, are designed to save the company more than $200 million in annual expenses, according to a news release. Peloton also said CEO Barry McCarthy is leaving his post.
On May 1, Cue Health, a medical diagnostic testing platform, is laying off 230 employees — nearly half of its workforce, according to an Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing. The company has been struggling amidst a decline in COVID-19 test sales.
April 2024 tech layoffs
Google reportedly laid off another 200 people in its “Core” unit at the end of April, according to CNBC. Some of the roles will be moved to Mexico and India.
On April 15, Tesla, the electric car company headed by billionaire Elon Musk, laid off 14,000 workers or about 10% of its staff. Sales of the EVs are slowing largely due to increased competition from traditional car brands rolling out their own EVs. The vehicle market has also seen a slowdown in EV purchasing, in general.
On April 9, Checkr, a background-screening platform, laid off 32% of its staff or 382 workers.
On April 4, Apple laid off 614 of its California workers who were part of a project to build an autonomous electric car. The company has abandoned the project.
On April 3, Amazon announced it would be laying off several hundred employees in its Sales, Marketing and Global Services organization as well as workers who develop tech for its physical stores. Earlier in the week, Amazon said it would be stepping away from using its “Just Walk Out” technology in its Amazon Fresh grocery stores. On March 28,
ChowNow, an online food ordering platform, laid off 20% of workers or about 60 people. The company also added 30 workers as part of an acquisition.
March 2024 tech layoffs
On March 25, Dell Technologies Inc. laid off about 6,000 workers as part of its efforts to cut costs and restructure employees. It’s the second mass layoff for the company this year.
On March 26, Synctera, a financial services startup, laid off about 17 workers, or about 15% of its staff.
On March 13, the fintech company Stash, laid off 25% of its staff or about 80 people. The company had made multiple cuts to its workforce since early 2022.
On March 8, Inscribe.ai, a fraud detection software powered by AI, announced it was laying off 40% of its employees.
On March 6, Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, laid off less than 50 employees in a reorganization of Facebook Messenger.
On March 3, Deadspin, a sports media site owned by G/O Media (formerly Gawker Media), laid off its entire 11-person staff. The layoffs were part of a sale to a European startup digital media company called Lineup Publishing.
February 2024 layoffs
On Feb. 28, Electronic Arts, which produces video games, announced it would be cutting 670 positions, or about 5% of its staff.
On Feb. 27, Sony Interactive Entertainment announced it would be laying off 900 employees, or about 8% of its workforce as part of a restructuring of its operations.
On Feb. 27, the dating app Bumble said it would lay off about 350 workers, or about 30% of its staff, as part of a restructuring plan.
On Feb. 26, Expedia Group announced it would lay off 1,500 jobs, or about 8% of its staff.
On Feb. 21, Buzzfeed, the digital media company, announced it would be cutting 16% of its staff as part of its restructuring of the brand. The layoffs arrived amid the company’s discounted sale of Complex Networks — a media startup that covers streetwear and pop culture — to e-commerce company Ntwrk.
On Feb. 15, Toast, a takeout and food delivery app, announced it was laying off 550 workers, or 10% of its staff, by the end of the fiscal year. The layoffs are an attempt to reorganize and improve “overall operating expense efficiency,” according to the company’s 2023 financial report.
On Feb. 14, Cisco, a networking hardware and software tech company, announced it plans to lay off 5% of its workforce as part of its restructuring plan. The cuts will impact more than 4,000 workers globally.
On Feb. 8, Getaround, the online car sharing service, laid off 30% of its staff.
On Feb. 6, Amazon announced it would lay off 440 workers.
On Feb. 6, DocuSign, an electronic-signature service, announced plans to cut 440 employees in its sales and marketing division — or about 6% of its workforce — as part of its restructuring plans.
On Feb 5, Snap, which owns the social app Snapchat, announced it would lay off 500 workers, or about 10% of its staff.
On Feb. 5, Drizly, the alcohol delivery app owned by Uber, is expected to shut down by the end of March, putting its entire staff of 168 employees out of work.
On Feb. 2, Cue Health, a biotech company, announced it would be cutting 245 workers, or about 30% of its staff.
On Feb. 1, Okta, a security software company, announced it would lay off 400 workers, or about 7% of its staff.
On Feb. 1, Zoom, the ubiquitous video conferencing company, announced it would lay off 150 staff members, or about 2% of its workforce.
January 2024 layoffs
On Jan. 30, PayPal, an online payment company, announced it would layoff 2,500 workers, or about 9% of its staff.
On Jan. 30, Block, a financial services company, laid off 1,000 workers — about 10% of its workforce.
On Jan. 29, iRobot, a robotics company, laid off 350 workers — about 31% of its staff.
On Jan. 26, Salesforce, a software company, laid off 700 workers — about 1% of its staff.
On Jan. 25, Microsoft laid off 1,900 video gaming staff members — about 9% of workers in the division — following an acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
On Jan. 23, eBay laid off 1,000 workers, or 9% of its staff.
On Jan. 22, TikTok laid off 60 workers primarily in its sales and advertising division.
On Jan. 19, WayFair, an e-commerce home furnishing company, laid off 1,650 workers — about 13% of its staff.
On Jan. 16, Google said it was laying off a few hundred of its advertising sales staff.
On Jan. 11, Discord, a social messaging startup, laid off about 170 workers — 17% of its staff.
On Jan. 11, Audible, Amazon’s audiobook and podcast app, laid off more than 100 employees — about 5% of its staff.
On Jan. 11, Google laid off about 1,000 of its workers.
On Jan. 9, Twitch, a video live-streaming service, laid off 500 employees — about 35% of its staff.
On Jan. 9, Rent the Runway, a fashion rental company, laid off 37 employees — bout 10% of its staff.
Cutbacks in 2023 and late 2022 included mass layoffs at Accenture, an IT company; Amazon; Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram; Zoom Video Communications, Inc.; Dell; Spotify; Google-parent Alphabet; Microsoft; and Twitter.
Other big-name companies laid off employees in 2023 and they run gamut of what tech has to offer: crypto (Coinbase), e-commerce (Shopify), ridesharing (Lyft), online payments (Stripe), work management platform (Asana) and an online real estate broker (Redfin). The list goes on and on.
When did all of the tech layoffs start?
Roger Lee, creator of Layoffs.fyi, has been following layoffs in tech since 2020 as startups started laying off employees during the early days of the pandemic. According to Lee, the pandemic created an opportunity for people to increasingly turn to the Internet for work, shopping and socializing. In response, tech companies went on a hiring spree to meet consumer demand.
This growth in tech employment started in late 2020 and lasted through 2021. At the same time the Federal Reserve’s policy slashed interest rates throughout 2021, which enabled tech companies to raise capital and invest in growth, Lee said. But both trends reversed in early 2022.
The majority of layoffs at the beginning of 2022 came from startups, according to Lee. But in late 2022 and early 2023 it started to creep into bigger tech, as well. Lee also said that “Big Tech” layoffs like those seen at Meta and Twitter “present a unique opportunity to recruit a caliber of talent that would've previously been impossible to attract.”
Note: This story originally published on Dec. 1, 2022 and included an interview with layoffs.fyi creator Roger Lee. It has been updated regularly since publication with new data and information on layoffs in the tech industry.
(Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images News via Google Images)
