Tech Layoffs Are Up 33% This Year and Workers Say the Job Search Has Become ‘Brutal’
More than 815,500 tech workers have been laid off since 2022, per the tracker Layoffs.fyi, and for many of them, finding what comes next has proven just as hard as losing the job itself. U.S. tech employers announced 85,411 job cuts between January and April alone, up 33% from the same period in 2024, according to global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, putting 2026 on pace to surpass last year’s total of 124,281 cuts.
Companies are betting heavily on AI, and workers are paying part of the cost. A record $61 billion went into data centers in 2025 alone, while headcount was trimmed to offset those costs. A small pool of AI-skilled workers is landing top packages, while a much larger group of experienced professionals is struggling to get callbacks, facing longer hiring cycles and fewer offers than even a year ago.
The job cuts are not limited to tech firms. General Motors laid off roughly 600 workers in its IT department, and Walmart is reportedly laying off or relocating around 1,000 employees from its technology and products teams. The Public Policy Institute of California estimates information sector jobs fell 17% between mid-2022 and this past February, with the San Francisco Bay Area taking the hardest hit.
Hiring Has Slowed, and the Interviews Keep Coming
Getting hired has become a longer, harder process. Companies are combining roles, requiring AI fluency, and interviewing more candidates per opening. Robert Lucido, senior director of strategic advisory at Magnit, a California company that helps businesses manage contractors and contingent workers, told the Los Angeles Times that some full-time roles now take up to six months to fill, and that offered salaries have been trending down.
Basem Istanbouli was laid off from Google’s ad sales team in January and has been searching since. “The job search has been brutal,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “Even though I get a lot of interviews and I make it to final rounds very often, I’ve just not been in the position to receive an offer.” He founded a hiking and community group called (un)PTO for people in career transition, which has grown to roughly 600 members.
Jessica Bryant, a software engineering associate laid off from Accenture in September, told The Independent she has applied to hundreds of positions while pursuing additional certifications in systems like Amazon Web Services. At one point, she was interviewed by an AI, an experience she suspects was less about genuine hiring and more about improving the technology itself. She has yet to receive a solid offer, and the stakes are personal: a state voucher covering her one-year-old daughter’s day care, where the child receives speech therapy, expires unless Bryant lands work soon.
Workers Are Rethinking What Comes Next
Faced with a slow market, some workers have used the time to retool. Jonathan Denno, laid off from Fidelity Information Services after more than a decade as a software test analyst, told The Independent he spent less than half his time applying and the rest sharpening existing skills and learning new ones. The approach paid off, and he is now in a contract role at Apple.
Elbert Nguyen, 25, was laid off from semiconductor firm AMD in April and told The Independent he is confident he will find another position, but is more worried about where the industry is heading. He feels AI adoption is outpacing the industry’s ability to weigh its costs. “It all comes at a cost,” he said. “I fear that it’s not being recognized or it’s being swept under the rug.”
Not every pivot has led somewhere comfortable. A senior engineering manager in his late 30s told The Independent he went through more than 50 near-miss interviews before accepting a startup role at less than a third of his previous salary. He is now weighing a move back to India, where his savings would stretch further. Paul Flaharty, district president at Robert Half in Los Angeles, told the Los Angeles Times that displaced workers should upskill to stay competitive for the AI-adjacent roles being created.
Community Has Become a Lifeline for the Laid Off
Istanbouli is still searching, and (un)PTO has grown into more than a hiking group. Members share job leads, swap resources, and open their networks to one another, and those who land roles bring referrals back. He told the Los Angeles Times that the group’s collective connections give everyone a better shot at eventually finding work. He told The Independent the group also helps ease the stigma of being visibly unemployed on LinkedIn.
Julia, a San Francisco tech executive who was laid off in April and asked The Independent to withhold her last name, said losing her job shook her more than she expected. “I didn’t realize how much of my confidence and how much of my emotional well-being was tied to the fact that I had a routine,” she told The Independent. She formed a group chat called LinkedInferno with fellow women in tech to share the weight of a sudden career reset.
Meta announced plans to lay off roughly 8,000 workers, about 10% of its staff, while reassigning 7,000 others to AI-related roles. Snap also cut workers this year, citing AI as a way to reduce repetitive tasks. More than 108,000 tech workers have been laid off so far this year, according to Layoffs.fyi, already nearing last year’s full total. For many still searching, the finish line keeps moving.