Here are the latest tech layoffs as the industry shudders

The high-flying tech industry is facing a reckoning as the economy slows and customers pull back on spending.

In the past month alone, tech companies have cut nearly 60,000 jobs, reversing a hiring spree that surged during the pandemic as millions of Americans moved their lives online. IBM was one of the latest to slash its headcount, announcing 3,900 layoffs in January, or less than 2% of its global workforce. 

Even with the surge in layoffs, most tech companies are still vastly larger than they were three years ago. But industry analysts expect further industry cuts in 2023 as the Federal Reserve continues to increase interest rates as it hits the brakes on economic growth. 

This year, “a major theme will be tech layoffs as Silicon Valley, after a decade of hyper growth, now comes to the reality of cost-cutting mode,” analysts at Wedbush said in a research note Friday.

As for what that means for tech workers, it’s too soon to tell, experts say. Despite the cascade of layoff announcements, employment in the information sector rose through most of last year, dropping only in December. That suggests demand for talent remains strong enough that many laid-off tech employees will likely be able to find new jobs.

“While layoffs from high-profile firms make the headlines, plenty of firms are desperate for more workers, especially tech workers. Those workers are in high demand from the auto industry to the Department of Veterans Affairs to not-for-profits,” said Robert Frick, corporate economist at Navy Federal Credit Union.

“The labor market is still so tight that many tech workers, and workers with other skills, are snapped up well before they need to collect an unemployment check. And they are more likely to be snapped up by smaller firms, which have a much greater demand for workers than major corporations.

The tech downturn is an anomaly amid a job market that remains the tightest in decades and has allowed many workers to command higher pay. Across the economy, announced layoffs last year fell to their second-lowest in 30 years of tracking by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, second only to 2021.

But even as overall layoffs fell, tech layoffs rose, with a record 1 in 4 layoffs last year taking place in the tech sector.

Here are the largest tech companies to announce cuts since 2022.