Tech company downsizing continues into 2025

By Dr. Tim Sandle
DIGITAL JOURNAL
May 26, 2025


Image by Volker Agueras Gäng — CC BY 2.0.

Mass layoffs are sweeping through the technology industry, as is apparent in a report looking at the companies that have eliminated the most jobs in 2025 around the world. The report comes from RationalFX, who detail the 90,471 layoffs announced so far.
Intel

Major tech companies have recently announced job cuts, including computer hardware giant Intel, which revealed plans to cut around 20% of its workforce by the end of the year (around 20,000 employees). Intel has recorded the highest number of layoffs to date. Following a reduction of more than 15,000 jobs in 2024.

Despite conflicting reports from company execs, the move is putting between 20,000 and 25,000 employees at risk of losing their jobs. Intel is not the only company to downsize.

By aggregating layoff announcements sourced from the U.S. WARN notices, the job portal TrueUp, TechCrunch and the Layoffs.fyi layoff tracker since the beginning of 2025, the report shows that technology is the sector that has taken the biggest brunt of job losses.

The data indicates that a total of 90,471 employees in the tech sector have been laid off since the start of the year. U.S.-based companies have let go of 65,545 people, or roughly 72.5% of all announced layoffs by tech firms around the world. The most massive layoffs this year come from tech giants Intel (21,780), Panasonic (10,000), and Microsoft (8,840).

Panasonic and Microsoft

Panasonic ranks second for the most layoffs so far this year after it announced 10,000 layoffs as part of a major overhaul, aiming to improve profitability and operational efficiency. Microsoft has also let go of a significant portion of its staff, 8,840 employees in total.

Geography

The U.S. leads in the number of layoffs, totalling 65,545, followed by Japan with 10,100, Sweden with 3,053, Switzerland with 3,050, and India with 2,688. California is the U.S. state where the companies with the most layoffs are headquartered in the United States. Firms based there have eliminated 38,352 positions; other states with significant job cuts are Washington (13,385), Texas (3,656), Massachusetts (2,520), and Arizona (2,450).

Drivers – goodbye to coding?

Financial pressures and the drive toward automation appear to be the main forces behind the recent waves of layoffs. There is less and less demand for generic coding and data-centric positions in tech firms. Even jobs that were in high demand just a year ago are becoming increasingly obsolete in the wider tech industry, such as AI development and prompt engineering. In addition, many tech giants are working to streamline their operations by cutting unnecessary layers of middle management across their organisations.

Many tech giants are also cutting jobs despite strong earnings. Microsoft reported $70.1 billion in Q1 revenue and $25.8 billion in net income but laid off 8,840 employees, including senior staff. Meta posted $16.64 billion in profit and cut 3,720 jobs. Chegg laid off 22% of its workforce after investing in a GPT-4-powered AI assistant.

The 90,471 laid off between January 1 and May 20, 2025, average 646 job losses per day. If the current pace continues, the tech industry is on track to cut an additional 145,500 jobs by year-end, bringing the projected total for 2025 to 235,871 layoffs in the global tech sector.