The Numbers Are Genuinely Startling

The tech industry has eliminated more than a million jobs since 2022, with tracking data putting 2025 layoffs at roughly 246,000 workers - the highest annual total since 2020. That pace hasn't slowed in 2026; by some tracking estimates, close to 1,000 tech workers are losing their jobs every calendar day this year, and tech now leads every private-sector industry in the US for the fourth consecutive year of layoff announcements. This is despite many of the companies doing the cutting reporting strong revenue and, in several high-profile cases, record profits in the same period.

Why Profitable Companies Are Still Cutting

The overhiring correction that dominated 2022-2024 - when companies trimmed staff brought on during the pandemic-era growth surge - has given way to a structurally different second wave. This one is being driven less by "we hired too many people" and more by "we are reorganising around AI capabilities." Companies are explicitly citing AI as a factor in job cuts with increasing frequency; one tracking estimate puts AI-attributed layoffs at over 127,000 announced US cuts since 2023, the first time in history a specific technology has been cited this directly and this often as a reason in corporate layoff filings.

It's Not Just Junior Roles Anymore

Earlier tech layoff waves disproportionately hit support staff, recruiters, and entry-level positions. The 2025-2026 wave has reached further up the ladder - senior engineers, specialised technical roles, and even some management layers are now part of the cuts, according to layoff tracking reports, a sign that this round is about restructuring how work gets done rather than simply trimming excess headcount left over from a hiring boom.

Where the Cuts Are Concentrated

The United States accounts for the overwhelming majority of tracked global tech layoffs - more than four in five, by some counts - though the pattern is genuinely global, with meaningful job losses recorded across Europe, India, and Israel as multinational tech companies restructure operations across every region they operate in simultaneously rather than concentrating cuts in a single headquarters market.

What This Means If You Work in Tech

The uncomfortable reality is that strong company performance is no longer a reliable predictor of job security in this sector - several of the largest single layoffs of 2026 came from companies simultaneously reporting excellent financial results, explicitly framing the cuts as efficiency and AI-driven restructuring rather than a response to financial distress. For tech workers, this argues for treating skills - particularly the ability to work effectively alongside AI tools rather than in a role AI could fully absorb - as a more reliable form of job security than tenure or company performance metrics. It's a harder, less comforting truth than "just work hard and the company will take care of you," but it's the one the data currently supports.