Tech layoffs surge past 100,000 as tech companies lay off 123,882 employees so far in 2023

Tech layoffs surge past 100,000 as 454 tech companies laid off a total of 123,882 employees so far in 2023. The good news is that tech companies aren’t letting go of their employees at the scale recorded in January when 65,000 tech workers were fired from their jobs, according to finance and startup news site CrunchBase, which has been tracking job cuts data since 2022.

However, by comparison, February was not as bad when about 28,000 U.S. tech employees lost their jobs, making it the third-worst layoff month since the start of 2022. Also in February, Facebook parent company Meta Platforms also announced it planned a fresh round of layoffs that could affect thousands of workers just a few weeks after CEO Mark Zuckerberg promised no more layoffs.

During the month, Elon Musk’s Twitter has laid off another 200 people in its latest round of job cuts, the New York Times reported late on Sunday. The current layoff, which represents 10% of the current workforce, reduced headcount to less than 2,000 vs. 7,500 when Elon Musk took it over in October, the New York Times reported late on Sunday.

While the job cuts continue to rise, the silver lining is that the tech layoffs are feeding a surge in the number of new startups. According to Wired, hundreds of thousands of tech workers who lost their jobs have decided to build their own companies instead of looking for new jobs.

The recent layoffs add to a steadily growing number of job cuts in the tech sector. Just last week, Alphabet’s Waymo laid off another 137 employees in its second round of job cuts this year, bringing total cuts for the year to 200, or  8% of its workforce after the company reported its initial job cuts in January. In a statement, the company said it eliminated some engineering roles as part of the cuts to “focus on commercial success.” The company has now laid off a total of 209 jobs so far this year.

“We took a thoughtful approach and feel confident that we’re providing for each of these former teammates through this transition,” the company said in a statement to CNN Wednesday. “We’re confident that we have the right teams in place to achieve success for Waymo.”

In January, Zoom announced it was laying off 15% of its workforce, or about 1,300 employees as its stock fell from its peak of $559 to $85. A day earlier, Dell announced plans to lay off 6,650 workers. In January, Google also said it plans to lay off more than 12,000 workers, while Microsoft revealed it plans to cut 10,000 employees and Salesforce announced plans to lay off 7,000 workers.

The global economic downturn that started in the second quarter of 2022 continues to have a major impact on tech companies. In recent months, tech companies, crypto exchanges, financial firms, and banks have reduced their headcount and slowed hiring as global economic growth weakens due to looming recession, inflation, higher interest rates, the energy crisis in Europe, and the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, the US tech layoffs may persist for the foreseeable future after the report of new inflation data. For example, the six largest U.S. tech companies lost over $500 billion in just one day of the stock market rout in February. Apple, the world’s most valuable public company, suffered the most loss closing at $153.84 for a loss of just under 6%. The carnage didn’t stop there. Microsoft lost over 4%, Meta Platforms down more than 7%, and chip giant Nvidia shed 9.5%. The stocks of these companies have since rebounded.