Global Tech Industry Faces Persistent Layoffs in 2024: Over 240,000 Jobs Lost
Tech layoffs tracker reveals 2024's ongoing trend with 30,375 job cuts in January. Major players like UPS, SAP, PayPal, Google, and others contribute to the surge.
The global tech industry faced persistent layoffs throughout the previous year, and the trend has unfortunately continued into 2024. Reports indicate that over 240,000 jobs were lost in tech firms in 2023, with major players such as Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, Nokia, and Accenture implementing significant workforce reductions. India has also experienced a notable impact, with companies like Paytm, Sharechat, Dunzo, and Byju carrying out substantial job cuts. Experts attribute these layoffs to factors such as surplus hiring during the pandemic, high inflation, and weakened consumer demand.
Data compiled by the tech layoff tracker, Layoffs.fyi, reveals that 2023 witnessed a staggering 262,595 employees being laid off by 1,189 companies. This marked a drastic increase of over 50 percent compared to 2022, the year when the global layoff trend initially began, with 164,969 layoffs by 1,064 tech companies. Unfortunately, the trend has persisted into 2024, with 30,375 employees receiving pink slips from 115 tech firms within the first month of the year.
| Name | Total employees fired | Timeline |
|---|---|---|
| UPS | 12,000 | January 2024 |
| SAP | 8,000 | January 2024 |
| PayPal | 2,500 | January 2024 |
| 1,000 (second layoff undisclosed) | December 2023 – January 2024 | |
| YouTube | 100 | January 2024 |
| Microsoft | 1,900 | January 2024 |
| Amazon | (undisclosed) | January 2024 |
| Twitch | 500 | January 2024 |
| Discord | 170 | January 2024 |
| TikTok | 60 | January 2024 |
| Unity | 1,800 | January 2024 |
| Wayfair | 1,650 | January 2024 |
| Pixar | (undisclosed) | January 2024 |
| Salesforce | 7,000 | January 2024 |
| eBay | 1,000 | January 2024 |
| Vroom | 800 | January 2024 |
| Riot Games | 530 | January 2024 |
| Audible | (undisclosed) | January 2024 |
| Block | 1,000 | January 2024 |
| Okta | 400 | January 2024 |
| Swiggy | 400 | January 2024 |
| Flipkart | 1,000 | 2024 |
| Wipro | (undisclosed) | 2024 |
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A significant development in the ongoing wave of layoffs came from logistics powerhouse United Parcel Service (UPS), as revealed in its fourth-quarter earnings report. The company announced the dismissal of 12,000 employees as part of its resource alignment strategy for 2024. UPS CEO Carol Tomé stated that this move is anticipated to generate cost savings of $1 billion. In a parallel move, German software giant SAP disclosed a substantial restructuring initiative affecting 8,000 employees. According to Reuters, the company aims to focus on advancing generational AI capabilities and automation. Employees will either undergo training in AI skills or opt for voluntary redundancy programs. Additionally, online payments company PayPal is reportedly set to lay off 9 percent of its workforce, amounting to 2,500 employees, as part of a headcount reduction effort.
The trend of layoffs continues in the tech industry, with Google making two separate announcements in January 2024. The first, affecting over 1,000 employees, targeted teams associated with Pixel, Fitbit, Nest, and Google Assistant. The second, reported by Business Insider, is expected to impact a few hundred individuals in the sales and advertising unit. In a separate move, YouTube disclosed the layoff of 100 employees as part of a restructuring initiative.
Microsoft, having experienced various job cuts in 2023, maintained the trend by letting go of 1,900 employees at Activision Blizzard and Xbox in January. This constitutes around 8 percent of the Microsoft Gaming division’s workforce, according to The Verge. Amazon joined the list of tech giants implementing layoffs, with “several hundred” employees affected in its Prime Video and MGM Studios division. The reason cited was a shift in focus, as reported by The Information.
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Social media platforms also felt the impact. Twitch, in a post in 2024, revealed the dismissal of 500 employees, citing organizational size as unsustainable. Discord followed suit by laying off 170 individuals, equivalent to 17 percent of its workforce. CEO Jason Citron attributed the move to overexpansion in an internal memo obtained by The Verge. Additionally, NPR reported that TikTok had terminated 60 employees, predominantly from sales and marketing, in January 2024.
The tech industry’s workforce reshaping trend extended to several other companies, making headlines for downsizing. Unity, the video game engine developer, disclosed in an SEC filing that it would be cutting around 1,800 positions to enhance its financial performance. Online furniture retailer Wayfair reportedly terminated 16 percent of its workforce, equating to 1,650 employees, attributing the move to excessive corporate hiring during the pandemic. TechCrunch reported that Disney-owned Pixar is anticipating a round of layoffs affecting up to 20 percent of its sizable 1,300-member workforce. In a surprising development, software giant Salesforce is laying off 7,000 employees, according to the Wall Street Journal.
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Additionally, e-commerce platform eBay announced plans to dismiss 1,000 employees, citing the ongoing economic conditions. Vroom, after closing its e-commerce used car marketplace on January 22, laid off a significant 800 employees, amounting to 90 percent of its workforce, based on a regulatory filing. Riot Games, the publisher of popular game titles like League of Legends and Valorant, revealed in a post that it let go of 530 employees, constituting 11 percent of its workforce, to focus on high-impact projects. Amazon-owned audiobook firm Audible also implemented a 5 percent staff reduction, as indicated by a leaked email obtained by Business Insider.
Jack Dorsey’s fintech firm Block, encompassing platforms like Square and Cash App, disclosed in a memo obtained by Business Insider that it would be laying off 1,000 employees, equivalent to 10 percent of its workforce, citing the organization’s growth outpacing revenue. San Francisco-based identity and access management firm Okta is reported to be dismissing 400 employees due to high costs.
On the global front, while tech giants grappled with these layoffs, the situation was no better in India. Swiggy, a leading food delivery company, reportedly let go of 400 employees, approximately 6 percent of its workforce, as part of a corporate alignment process ahead of its planned IPO. Walmart-owned Flipkart is also rumored to consider laying off up to 1,000 employees in an annual restructuring exercise, according to a report.
Just two days ago, on January 31, Wipro joined the list as it initiated the process of dismissing “hundreds of mid-level roles onsite” to enhance its margins, as reported by the Economic Times. With 11 more months to go in the year, the continuous resizing of workforces across these tech firms suggests that the number of impacted individuals may rise significantly.
Behind the corporate buzzwords of “restructuring,” “improving efficiency,” “focus on sustainability,” and “surplus hiring,” the real narrative becomes evident. Many tech firms, thriving during the lockdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic, experienced a surge in revenue and subsequently expanded their operations, hiring extensively. However, with the pandemic subsiding and people returning to offline activities, online-first companies are witnessing a decline in business and user engagement on digital platforms.
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Artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a significant factor in these layoffs. The proliferation of AI products and tools for task automation has provided companies with an additional avenue to cut costs and enhance efficiency. Notably, the CEO of Paytm, while announcing job cuts affecting 1,000 employees, emphasized the cost-saving benefits of AI, stating, “We will be able to save 10-15% in employee costs as Artificial Intelligence (AI) has delivered more than we expected it to.”
The impact of “pandemic hiring” is expected to reach a saturation point, as large tech firms have undertaken substantial layoffs since 2022, likely achieving workforce stabilization. While startups and multinational corporations also joined the trend in 2023, it may persist for some time. The ongoing constant is the growing prominence of AI. The innovations in 2023 predominantly centered on a technology that was not fully explored. AI tools are anticipated to become more refined and enterprise-ready in the coming years, infiltrating a broader array of industries. Google, for instance, is already experimenting with AI models for music generation (MusicLM), image generation (Vertex AI), and text-to-video generation with realistic motion (Lumiere).
A 2020 report by the World Economic Forum predicts that technology-driven workforce automation could displace as many as 85 million jobs by 2025. While this figure may seem ambitious in 2024, even if only one percent of it materializes in the next five years, it would result in 8.5 million job losses. To contextualize the enormity of this impact, the entire layoff spree between 2022 and now amounts to slightly less than half a million (457,939).