RationalFX data showed Thursday that there have been 30,700 tech layoffs worldwide since the start of the year, on track to surpass 2025’s job cuts of roughly 245,000.

The firm said in a statement that of these, 24,600 roles, just over 80 percent of the global total, came from U.S.-based tech companies, with the biggest share coming from Amazon’s recent announcement that it would be cutting 16,000 positions.

While much less dramatic, Europe remains firmly in second place with 4,214 layoffs, with the biggest number coming from Sweden (1,900) and the Netherlands (1,700), primarily due to cost-cutting initiatives and AI implementation.

These are the Countries With the Most Layoffs So Far in 2026
US – 24,600 layoffs
Sweden – 1,900 layoffs
Netherlands – 1,700 layoffs
India – 920 layoffs
Israel – 774 – layoffs
Czech Republic – 250 layoffs
Germany – 200 layoffs
Argentina – 119 layoffs
France – 114 layoffs
British Virgin Islands – 60 layoffs

According to RationalFX, early 2026 figures show that if this trend continues throughout the year, the year could see over 270,000 total tech job losses, far outpacing the scale of 2025.

Amazon, which previously eliminated tens of thousands of jobs across 2025 as part of restructuring initiatives, confirmed 16,000 corporate layoffs in January 2026, representing over 52 percent of all announced tech layoffs so far this year and far outpacing other tech companies.

These cuts occur despite the company posting record revenues of $716.9 billion in 2025 (up 12 percent year-on-year).

Meanwhile, Sweden-based telecommunications equipment maker Ericsson has moved forward with a significant workforce reduction in early 2026, announcing plans to cut approximately 1,900 jobs, the bulk of which stem from a proposed reduction of around 1,600 positions in its home market as part of broader cost-efficiency measures.

The company, which said it had begun formal consultations with Swedish trade unions and notified the Swedish Public Employment Service, framed the cuts as necessary to strengthen its competitive position amid a sluggish global 5G market and intensifying industry competition.

Dutch semiconductor parts maker ASML announced plans to cut around 1,700 jobs in early 2026, even as it rode a wave of strong demand for advanced chipmaking systems and reported record sales and profits in 2025.

The reductions, roughly 4 percent of its global workforce, are focused primarily on management, technology, and information technology (IT) roles in the Netherlands and, to a lesser extent, the United States, and are part of a broader effort to simplify the company’s organizational structure and sharpen its engineering focus.

Social media and technology giant Meta cut approximately 1,500 jobs in early 2026, affecting 10 percent of its Reality Labs division, the unit tasked with building virtual reality headsets, Horizon Worlds, and other metaverse‑related projects.

This is the first major workforce reduction at Meta this year and comes as the company pivots away from costly metaverse investments toward higher‑priority areas like artificial intelligence, following years of heavy losses in Reality Labs.

Meta executives, including Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth, have framed the layoffs as part of a broader effort to streamline operations and reallocate capital to products with stronger market traction, even as the company continues to back long‑term augmented‑reality ambitions.

Fintech firm Block Inc., the parent company of payment platforms like Square and Cash App, announced plans to cut about 1,100 jobs in early 2026, representing roughly 10 percent of its global workforce as part of a broader restructuring push.

Led by Co‑founder Jack Dorsey, the company says the reductions, tied to annual performance reviews and strategic realignment, are intended to flatten management layers, eliminate overlapping roles, and improve operational efficiency as it continues to integrate its core services and invest in emerging areas such as Bitcoin‑related products and internal AI tools.

This marks Block’s third major round of job cuts in recent years, following roughly 931 redundancies in 2025 and a similar reduction in 2024, highlighting the company’s continued drive to reduce costs as competition in the industry intensifies.

Design software leader Autodesk and cloud‑computing giant Salesforce have each announced layoffs of roughly 1,000 employees in early 2026, reflecting a broader trend of strategic workforce realignment across enterprise software.

Autodesk, based in San Rafael, California, is trimming roles primarily in product development and corporate functions to streamline operations and accelerate investment in its cloud-based design platforms, while Salesforce is reducing headcount in a mix of sales, marketing, and support roles as part of an effort to simplify its organizational structure and improve operational efficiency following rapid pandemic-era growth.

Together, these reductions highlight how even established software leaders are balancing continued investment in high-demand products with the need to control costs and maintain profitability in a challenging enterprise technology landscape.

Last year’s mass redundancies were largely driven by automation, artificial intelligence (AI)‑driven job displacement, and broader cost‑cutting strategies.

Roughly 69,840 of the 245,000 tech layoffs, about 28.5 percent of the total, were tied to AI adoption and automation.

While roles most easily replaced by automation were initially the first to go, recent rounds of cuts, including at Microsoft, which eliminated 6,000 positions, among them a senior AI director, show that even high-level roles are no longer immune.

That pattern has carried into 2026, with at least 1,430 confirmed AI-related job cuts so far, including Pinterest’s 15 percent workforce reduction (675 layoffs) as part of a strategic pivot toward AI.

Employers are now placing increasing emphasis on AI expertise as a core requirement when evaluating candidates.

Historically, companies have attempted to mitigate layoffs through reskilling and redeployment, but some executives, such as TCS’s K. Krithivasan, argue that simply moving employees into new positions is not a sustainable solution.

The coming months will reveal whether tech firms in 2026 continue to prioritize cost-cutting and downsizing, or if the rise of AI and related technologies will drive the creation of new roles across the industry.

“Tech’s 2026 layoffs are not a sign of an industry in the midst of collapse; they’re a sign of recalibration. Many of the same companies cutting thousands of roles are doing so after posting strong profits, which shows this is about efficiency, not survival,

“AI is no longer just a growth story; it’s a cost-reduction tool, and firms are restructuring accordingly. What we’re witnessing is a shift from headcount-driven expansion to automation-led productivity, a transition that will define the tech sector in the coming years,” said Alan Cohen, analyst at RationalFX.

Report discovers nearly 30,000 tech sector layoffs already in 2025