The tech industry has been struggling with massive layoffs since early 2023, and the trend has only continued into 2024, showing no signs of slowing down. A report by BestBrokers shows that the trend of job cuts is not slowing down as companies’ decisions are driven by economic challenges, high interest rates and rapid advancements in artificial intelligence (AI).
The team analysed over 800 layoff announcements from the technology sector by tracking updates on the IT job portal, trueup.io. They found out that a total of 211,033 employees have been laid off across more than 194 tech companies worldwide since the start of 2024.
According to the report, major tech players like Intel, Tesla, Li Auto, and SAP have made the most significant workforce reductions so far, often citing cost-cutting measures and a shift toward AI technologies as key reasons.
U.S.-based corporations top this year’s layoff list with a total of 120,283 job cuts, accounting for over half of the global total. Companies from countries like China followed with less than 10% with a total of 12,900 layoffs. Germany followed with 12,547 layoffs.
This is followed by Japan with 12,240 layoffs. And, India closed the top 5 list with a total of 8,560 layoffs.
Kenya is the only African country on the list of top 20 countries with the highest number of layoffs. This is partly owing to a decision by eCommerce platform Copia to let go of 350 employees in July 2023 and subsequently shut down its operations citing the market environment and prioritising profits as contributing factors.
Similarly, Twiga, a business-to-business platform for fresh food supply chains, reduced its workforce twice: 211 in November 2022 and 283 employees in August 2023. According to the company, the layoffs were a measure of cost-effectiveness to keep the business afloat in the face of microeconomic headwinds.
Breakdown by companies: Dell tops the chart
PC manufacturer, Dell has cut a total of 18,500 jobs across two rounds of layoffs. These cuts account for 8.77% of all global tech layoffs this year and 15.38% of the 120,283 positions lost by U.S.-based tech companies. This follows Dell’s previous fiscal year job cuts when it eliminated 13,000 positions due to declining PC sales.
However, despite the workforce reductions, Dell saw a 9% year-over-year revenue increase in the second fiscal quarter of 2025, driven by a surge in server sales, generating $25 billion in revenue and $841 million in net profit.
Below is a table of the 20 tech companies with the largest workforce reductions since the start of 2024:
EV manufacturer Tesla ranks third in layoffs this year, cutting approximately 10% of its workforce, or about 14,000 employees.
CEO Elon Musk explained that the reductions were necessary due to the company’s rapid expansion, which led to duplication of roles and functions in some areas. This move follows a disappointing quarterly delivery report, where Tesla missed delivery estimates and recorded a rare year-over-year decline in sales.
China’s Li Auto also ranks high on the list, having reduced its workforce by 10,000 employees, representing 77.52% of all job cuts made by Chinese companies since the beginning of the year.
German software giant SAP has sacked around 9,500 positions in its 2024 restructuring plan, while Japanese electronics company Toshiba and American networking equipment manufacturer Cisco have also trimmed their teams. Since the beginning of the year, they have laid off 9,000 and 8,000 employees, respectively.
Other major tech staff reductions have come from Turkey’s Getir (6,000 job cuts), India’s Paytm (5,000 job cuts), Spain’s Telefonica (3,421) and the United States’ Microsoft (3,400 job cuts).
What is driving the massive layoffs?
The report identifies three major reasons for the layoff trend across the globe:
According to it, layoffs in the technology sector started as a consequence of overhiring during the COVID-19 pandemic. At first, companies rapidly expanded their workforces to meet the soaring demand for digital products and services. However, as the lockdown ended and demand for these products waned, many firms found they had more employees than needed, which led to significant job cuts.
Last year alone, over 260,000 tech workers worldwide lost their jobs.
The second reason for the layoffs is the rise in interest rates, which have made borrowing more expensive. Companies have been forced to re-evaluate their strategies and cut costs, often through workforce reductions.
Some experts predict that job losses may continue to escalate in the coming months as businesses struggle financially due to these high rates, potentially pushing the unemployment rate to 5% by the end of the year.
Lastly, advancements in automation and AI technologies have led to certain roles becoming redundant, prompting companies to restructure and downsize their teams accordingly.
Tech firms, in particular, are heavily investing in AI, frequently at the expense of human jobs. Other factors contributing to the ongoing wave of tech layoffs include economic slowdowns, rising inflation, declining stock prices, slowing sales, and concerns about a potential recession.
