Roughly 109,000 technology industry employees from 392 companies have been laid off since the start of the year, according to the industry employment tracking
website Layoffs.Fyi.
At the current pace, about 650,000 tech employees could lose their current jobs, which is about a 300 percent increase from 2022, when 160,997 people got pink slips, according to Layoffs.Fyi.
Earlier this month, the computer maker Dell announced plans to
cut about 6,650 employees in a plan to reduce its workforce by about 5 percent. Last month, Google began layoffs of 12,000 workers, or about 6 percent of its workforce. Microsoft also began
cutting about 10,000 jobs in January. Amazon also announced plans to cut 8,000 jobs, on top of the roughly 10,000 it slashed at the end of last year.
“Market conditions continue to erode with an uncertain future,” Dell Co-Chief Operating Officer Jeff Clarke, said as he announced the staff cuts.
He said the steps the company had taken to that point to stay ahead of the downturn were “no longer enough.”
Dozens of smaller firms and start-ups also have pared their workforces recently. On Feb. 21, the India-based Polygon announced a plan to cut 100 employees, or about 20 percent of its workforce, according to Layoffs.Fyi. A day earlier, the Tokyo-based Crunchyroll, an anime-streaming service, cut 85 of its employees.
The widespread tech industry layoffs could be the result of a correction after pandemic-era overhiring, experts say. Online commerce experienced a spike in 2020, as many Americans were confined to their homes. Salesforce co-CEO Marc Benioff has
attributed his company’s recent job losses to overhiring, as has
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Tech companies also might be laying off employees as they
brace for a potential recession.
NSA Scooping Up Laid-Off Tech Workers
While tens of thousands of U.S. tech industry employees are losing their jobs in the private sector, the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) has been working to pull in new talent.
On Jan. 24, the military intelligence agency
stated that it “is undertaking one of its largest hiring surges in 30 years with openings for over 3,000 new employees.” The hiring surge includes openings for computer science, cybersecurity, math, data science, engineering, intelligence analysis, language analysis, communications, business, and accounting, with entry-, mid-, and senior-level positions.
NSA talent management senior strategist Christine Parker recently
told The Washington Times that the agency had specifically focused its recruiting efforts on out-of-work or soon-to-be out-of-work tech industry employees.
“NSA started reaching out through LinkedIn, through some of our career boards, specifically sending messages to people that we thought might be linked to some companies that either were in the news saying they are going to lay off or were predicted to be laid off,” Parker told the newspaper. “Just kind of let them know that we’re here and that we have this robust, ongoing hiring program.”
