By Dr. Tim Sandle
January 30, 2025
DIGITAL JOURNAL
Unionized employees at Conde Nast, which includes brands like Vogue and Vanity Fair, walked off the job in protest of looming layoffs
Unionized employees at Conde Nast, which includes brands like Vogue and Vanity Fair, walked off the job in protest of looming layoffs
— © AFP ANGELA WEISS / File
Globally, 280,991 layoffs occurred in the tech sector in 2024. In the U.S. alone, 267 companies reduced their workforce with a combined 157,950 job losses.
As new rounds of mass layoffs at major technology companies are being announced in 2025, a new latest report examines the workforce reductions that occurred around the world in 2024.
The report has discovered at least 11,000 employees in the technology sector have lost their jobs since the beginning of the year.
The analysis comes from the firm RationalFX, who aggregated layoff announcements sourced from U.S. WARN notices, the job portal TrueUp, TechCrunch and the Layoffs.fyi layoff tracker for the entirety of 2024.
The report also looked into the latest layoffs since the beginning of January 2025, focusing on companies in the technology sector.
According to the research, at least 280,991 employees in tech companies were laid off last year, while January brought another 11,299 job reductions from major companies, including Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon. The tech company with the most significant layoffs in 2024 was U.S. PC maker Dell, which reduced its headcount by 18,500, followed by Intel (15,100 layoffs), and Amazon (14,968 layoffs).
The electric vehicle (EV) sector also experienced layoffs, despite its growth potential. Industry leader Tesla laid off 14,000 employees as it sought to reduce operational costs amid increasing production expenses.
Together, the 21 companies with the largest layoffs in 2024 announced a total of 156,654 job reductions. The wave of layoffs continues as companies focus on cutting costs, downsizing, and streamlining operations following significant hiring sprees during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Investments in artificial intelligence have also pushed the number of layoffs high as simpler, repetitive tasks are assigned to AI systems, while human workers are either transferred to other departments or laid off.
U.S. dominates layoff patterns
More than half of all layoffs in the tech sector were initiated by U.S.-based companies (157,950 or 56.21% of all), followed by 19,495 job cuts in German companies, 14,740 layoffs in South Korean firms, 14,675 layoffs in Chinese ones, and 12,608 job cuts in companies based in Japan.
Anotherfactor in Germany has been the economic stagnation with 2024 being the second year in a row of contraction in the economy.
Returning to North America, California is the U.S. state with the most tech sector layoffs, accounting for 40.4% of all job cuts in the U.S. and roughly 22.7% of all tech layoffs in the world. In 2024, 126 California-based tech firms laid off a combined 63,791 employees.
Globally, 280,991 layoffs occurred in the tech sector in 2024. In the U.S. alone, 267 companies reduced their workforce with a combined 157,950 job losses.
As new rounds of mass layoffs at major technology companies are being announced in 2025, a new latest report examines the workforce reductions that occurred around the world in 2024.
The report has discovered at least 11,000 employees in the technology sector have lost their jobs since the beginning of the year.
The analysis comes from the firm RationalFX, who aggregated layoff announcements sourced from U.S. WARN notices, the job portal TrueUp, TechCrunch and the Layoffs.fyi layoff tracker for the entirety of 2024.
The report also looked into the latest layoffs since the beginning of January 2025, focusing on companies in the technology sector.
According to the research, at least 280,991 employees in tech companies were laid off last year, while January brought another 11,299 job reductions from major companies, including Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon. The tech company with the most significant layoffs in 2024 was U.S. PC maker Dell, which reduced its headcount by 18,500, followed by Intel (15,100 layoffs), and Amazon (14,968 layoffs).
The electric vehicle (EV) sector also experienced layoffs, despite its growth potential. Industry leader Tesla laid off 14,000 employees as it sought to reduce operational costs amid increasing production expenses.
Together, the 21 companies with the largest layoffs in 2024 announced a total of 156,654 job reductions. The wave of layoffs continues as companies focus on cutting costs, downsizing, and streamlining operations following significant hiring sprees during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Investments in artificial intelligence have also pushed the number of layoffs high as simpler, repetitive tasks are assigned to AI systems, while human workers are either transferred to other departments or laid off.
U.S. dominates layoff patterns
More than half of all layoffs in the tech sector were initiated by U.S.-based companies (157,950 or 56.21% of all), followed by 19,495 job cuts in German companies, 14,740 layoffs in South Korean firms, 14,675 layoffs in Chinese ones, and 12,608 job cuts in companies based in Japan.
Anotherfactor in Germany has been the economic stagnation with 2024 being the second year in a row of contraction in the economy.
Returning to North America, California is the U.S. state with the most tech sector layoffs, accounting for 40.4% of all job cuts in the U.S. and roughly 22.7% of all tech layoffs in the world. In 2024, 126 California-based tech firms laid off a combined 63,791 employees.
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