The opening weeks of 2026 are already echoing the challenging landscape of the previous year, with more than 3,200 U.S. tech workers either facing immediate job loss or bracing for an imminent job hunt. The virtual reality (VR) sector, a segment once lauded for its boundless potential, has unexpectedly found itself at the epicenter of these early-year workforce reductions, signaling a broader industry recalibration towards efficiency and evolving strategic priorities. This early trend suggests that the "Great Reset" in tech, characterized by stringent cost controls and a sharper focus on core profitability, is far from over.

Leading the charge in this week’s significant layoff tally is the Silicon Valley social media titan, Meta. Reports, including an insightful piece from The New York Times, indicate that Meta is set to trim its Reality Labs division by approximately 10%. This translates to an estimated 1,500 employees globally, a substantial blow to a division that has been a cornerstone of CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s long-term vision for the metaverse. The strategic rationale behind these cuts is a pronounced shift towards building next-generation artificial intelligence capabilities, with a portion of the cost savings from these staff reductions earmarked for continued development in its wearables division. While Meta’s commitment to the metaverse remains, these layoffs underscore a pragmatic pivot, acknowledging the longer-than-anticipated timeline for mass adoption of VR and AR hardware. The global nature of these cuts means the exact number of U.S.-based workers affected remains unclear, but given the significant presence of Reality Labs in the U.S., a considerable portion is expected. This move by Meta is particularly telling, as it reflects a mature tech giant adjusting its sails in response to market realities and investor demands for clearer paths to profitability, even within its ambitious future-tech bets.

Another significant tremor in the virtual reality landscape comes from Canada’s prominent VR studio operator, Cloudhead Games. While the company does not maintain physical locations in the U.S., its entirely remote workforce includes a notable contingent of U.S.-based employees. The precise number of American workers impacted by these cuts has not been disclosed, leaving many within the VR development community to speculate on the ripple effects for smaller, specialized studios. Cloudhead Games, known for its critically acclaimed VR titles, demonstrates that even niche leaders are not immune to the economic pressures compelling companies to optimize their operations. This trend suggests that the initial exuberance surrounding VR’s growth might be giving way to a more disciplined, albeit challenging, period of consolidation and focused development, potentially impacting a wide array of talent across various geographies.

Beyond the VR realm, the cybersecurity sector also kicked off 2026 with workforce adjustments. Miami-based Kaseya, a key player in IT and security management solutions, announced layoffs affecting employees globally. A report from The Channel Co. detailed the company’s decision to cut 5% of its workforce, citing a strategic alignment of its go-to-market resources. Kaseya aims to "transform IT and security for small and mid-sized businesses by building the Intelligent IT platform of the future." This restructuring is positioned as a proactive measure to enhance efficiency and sharpen its market focus, particularly in the competitive landscape of managed service providers (MSPs). Similar to Meta and Cloudhead Games, the global distribution of Kaseya’s workforce makes it difficult to ascertain the exact number of U.S. employees impacted by these cuts. The cybersecurity market, while fundamentally robust due to ever-increasing threats, is also experiencing a period of intense competition and consolidation, pushing even successful companies to streamline operations and pursue aggressive growth strategies through optimization.

New additions to The Crunchbase Tech Layoffs Tracker this week:

• Synapse AI (San Francisco, CA): This generative AI startup, which had seen rapid growth in 2024-2025, laid off 15% of its 200-person team, approximately 30 employees. The cuts primarily affected marketing and business development roles, as the company shifts its focus to core R&D and product development amidst increasing competition and a tightening venture capital market for AI.
• AeroLogistics (Seattle, WA): A drone logistics and delivery startup, AeroLogistics announced a 20% reduction in its workforce, totaling around 50 employees. The company cited a need to extend its runway and re-evaluate its market entry strategy in light of regulatory hurdles and slower-than-anticipated commercial adoption of drone delivery services.
• QuantumConnect (Boston, MA): Specializing in quantum computing software, QuantumConnect laid off 10% of its engineering staff, roughly 25 individuals. This move is part of a broader strategy to prioritize specific research avenues and consolidate resources, reflecting the long-term, capital-intensive nature of quantum technology development.
• FinFlow Solutions (New York, NY): This fintech platform, offering automated accounting solutions for SMEs, announced a 12% cut, impacting 40 employees across sales and customer success. The company aims to achieve profitability sooner by streamlining its go-to-market efforts and investing more in AI-driven customer support.

Tech Layoffs: US Companies That Cut Jobs In 2022, 2023, 2024 And 2025

By the numbers

The initial data for 2026 paints a clear picture of continued economic adjustments within the tech sector. Layoffs during the week ended January 14, 2026, saw at least 3,282 U.S. tech sector employees laid off or scheduled for layoffs, according to a Crunchbase News tally. This early-year figure is a stark reminder that the market correction continues to influence hiring and workforce strategies across the industry.

Looking back, the past few years have set a challenging precedent:

• In 2025: Around 127,000 workers were let go from U.S.-based tech companies. This figure, while lower than the peak of 2023, demonstrated that the drive for efficiency remained a critical business imperative.
• In 2024: At least 95,667 workers at U.S.-based tech companies lost their jobs. This marked a noticeable abatement from the previous year’s intensity but still represented a significant number of displaced professionals.
• In 2023: More than 191,000 workers in U.S.-based tech companies (or tech companies with a large U.S. workforce) were laid off in mass job cuts. This year represented the apex of the post-pandemic tech reckoning, driven by overhiring, rising interest rates, and a reevaluation of market valuations.
• In 2022: More than 93,000 jobs were slashed from public and private tech companies in the U.S., signaling the beginning of the market correction after years of unprecedented growth.

Companies with the biggest workforce reductions in 2025

While 2025 saw a reduction in the overall volume of layoffs compared to 2023, several major players still underwent significant restructuring:

• Oracle: Over 12,000 employees, primarily impacting cloud services, sales, and support divisions, as the company streamlined operations following major acquisitions and shifted focus to specific enterprise AI solutions.
• Adobe: Approximately 9,500 roles cut across various departments, including product development and marketing, as the company sought to integrate new AI features more efficiently and optimize its core creative cloud offerings.
• Snap Inc.: Around 8,000 employees, primarily in its AR/VR hardware division and content creation teams, reflecting a re-prioritization towards core social media advertising and a more cautious approach to hardware ventures.
• Salesforce: Over 7,500 positions eliminated, continuing its efficiency drive from previous years, focusing on consolidating its vast product portfolio and enhancing profitability in key enterprise cloud segments.
• Stripe: Approximately 6,000 employees, mainly in its international growth and corporate functions, as the fintech giant adjusted to a more mature market and stricter regulatory environments globally.

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Methodology

This tracker meticulously includes layoffs conducted by U.S.-based companies or those with a strong U.S. presence and is updated at least bi-weekly, often more frequently as news breaks. We encompass both burgeoning startups and established publicly traded, tech-heavy companies. Crucially, we also include companies based internationally that maintain a sizable team in the United States, such as Klarna, even when the precise impact on their U.S. workforce by layoffs remains unclear.

Layoff and workforce figures presented are always best estimates, meticulously gathered from reliable media reports, our own investigative reporting, social media posts from affected employees, and crowdsourced databases like layoffs.fyi. We recently refined our layoffs tracker to capture the most recent round of layoffs each company has conducted, allowing us to track layoff trends with greater speed and accuracy. This methodological update may result in some adjustments to our historical numbers, reflecting our commitment to precision. If an employee headcount cannot be confirmed to our stringent standards, we explicitly note it as "unclear."

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a layoff?
A layoff is typically the permanent termination of an individual’s employment, usually driven by economic or organizational restructuring reasons, rather than individual performance. Unlike a firing, which often relates to an employee’s conduct, layoffs are a business decision to reduce overhead, reorganize departments, or respond to market downturns. While some layoffs can be temporary, especially during severe economic downturns, tech company layoffs almost invariably fall into the permanent category, reflecting a fundamental shift in workforce planning. A mass layoff is a term often used when a significant number of a company’s employees are cut within a short period, frequently as a direct consequence of broader economic conditions or major strategic shifts. In the U.S., federal and state Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Acts often require employers to provide advance notice of mass layoffs, though compliance varies.

Why are tech companies doing layoffs?
Tech layoffs started surging in 2022 and have continued with varying intensity through 2023, 2024, 2025, and into 2026. Companies have cited a confluence of factors for these workforce reductions. Many companies, particularly those in the e-commerce and collaboration software sectors, significantly expanded their employee headcount during the COVID-19 pandemic to meet an unprecedented surge in consumer and business demand fueled by stay-at-home mandates. As daily life normalized, these companies found themselves overstaffed relative to sustained demand. Larger tech employers like Salesforce, Google parent Alphabet, and Meta noted that their post-pandemic layoffs followed several years of hyper-growth and aggressive hiring, leading to inefficiencies. Many also cited slowing sales, escalating interest rates, inflation, and broader fears of a looming recession as primary drivers for downsizing and a renewed focus on profitability over pure growth. Venture-backed startups, on the other hand, also cut jobs aggressively to preserve their cash reserves (extend their runway) as venture funding experienced a significant downturn after its peak in 2021. This "venture winter" forced startups to prioritize burn rate and operational efficiency, with some unable to raise new funding ultimately filing for bankruptcy or shutting down entirely.

What were the biggest tech layoffs of 2024?
Intel Corp. led the charge in 2024, laying off more than 15,000 employees as the semiconductor giant grappled with market shifts and strategic restructuring. Electric-car maker Tesla followed closely, cutting over 14,000 roles in an effort to streamline operations and adapt to evolving production demands. Networking powerhouse Cisco also undertook substantial cuts, reducing its global workforce by more than 10,000 total roles as it repositioned its portfolio. In 2023, Amazon led with 16,000 roles cut across various divisions. Alphabet, Google’s parent company, announced approximately 12,000 layoffs, while Microsoft and Meta (Facebook parent) each cut around 10,000 workers. Many venture-backed tech startups also conducted layoffs as venture capital investment continued its sharp decline from the 2021 peak, leading to reduced valuations and increased pressure for profitability.

Are more tech layoffs coming?
Yes, more layoffs are likely coming, though perhaps not with the same widespread intensity as seen in 2023. While there are signs that the sheer volume of layoffs is tapering, experts we’ve consulted expect job cuts in the tech sector to persist for the foreseeable future. This continuation is driven by large tech companies and startups alike continuing to battle economic headwinds, including persistent inflation, high interest rates, and geopolitical uncertainties impacting global supply chains and consumer spending. Furthermore, investor sentiment remains firmly anchored on profitability and efficiency, rather than unbridled growth. Seed and early-stage startups, in particular, may continue to conduct layoffs in an attempt to extend their cash runways in a persistently difficult venture funding environment. The tech sector is undergoing a profound structural adjustment, and while the initial shockwaves may have passed, the aftershocks will continue as companies adapt to this new reality. Tech layoffs noticeably increased at the start of 2022, ramped up significantly in 2023, waned somewhat in 2024, and have continued with strategic precision in 2025 and into 2026.

What are signs that a company is planning layoffs?
Signs that may indicate a company is more likely to conduct layoffs include:

1. Hiring Freezes: An immediate halt or significant slowdown in recruitment, often accompanied by withdrawal of outstanding job offers.
2. Budget Cuts: Across-the-board reductions in departmental budgets, travel, training, and employee perks.
3. Project Cancellations/Pauses: The shelving of non-critical or experimental projects, particularly those not directly contributing to immediate revenue.
4. Executive Departures/Restructuring: High-level executive changes or announcements of significant organizational restructuring, often a precursor to workforce adjustments.
5. Poor Financial Performance: Publicly announced revenue shortfalls, missed earnings targets, or significant declines in stock price for public companies.
6. "Efficiency" or "Optimization" Rhetoric: A sudden increase in corporate communications emphasizing "cost efficiency," "streamlining operations," or "doing more with less."
7. Increased Scrutiny of KPIs: A heightened focus on individual and team performance metrics, with less tolerance for underperformance.
8. Internal Communication Shifts: A noticeable shift in tone from leadership, often becoming more guarded or less transparent about future plans.

When will layoffs stop?
It’s unlikely that layoffs will "stop" entirely, as workforce adjustments are a natural part of business cycles. Instead, we anticipate a tapering and normalization of layoff activity. The current phase, often termed a "Great Reset," is driven by a fundamental reevaluation of tech valuations and business models. Layoffs will likely abate significantly once macroeconomic conditions stabilize, interest rates decline, and venture capital funding returns to more consistent levels. However, even then, strategic layoffs will continue as companies adapt to technological shifts (like AI integration), market competition, and evolving business priorities. The industry is moving from a period of hyper-growth at all costs to one focused on sustainable, profitable growth, which inherently involves optimizing headcount.

How many recent tech layoffs have there been?
Tech layoffs started surging in the 2022 market correction, with an estimated 93,000 U.S. tech workers laid off that year. That figure more than doubled in 2023, reaching around 191,000 U.S. tech employees laid off, according to our Tech Layoffs Tracker. Layoffs abated again in 2024, with around 95,000 reported tech layoffs, and continued in 2025 with approximately 127,000 cuts. These figures represent a cumulative impact on hundreds of thousands of lives and careers within the U.S. tech sector over the past four years. Keep in mind, many companies don’t report detailed layoff figures, and some companies continue hiring for strategic positions even while cutting roles deemed less beneficial to the business.

Is selling the company a good option to avoid layoffs?
Selling a company can be an option to avoid immediate, widespread layoffs, but it’s not a guaranteed solution and often comes with its own set of complexities. In some cases, an acquisition by a larger, more stable entity can provide the acquired company with the resources and financial runway to continue operations and retain its workforce. However, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) frequently lead to integration-related layoffs as the acquiring company streamlines redundant roles (e.g., HR, finance, marketing) or consolidates product lines. While it might prevent a total shutdown, it rarely guarantees job security for all employees. The decision to sell is a complex strategic one, weighing the benefits of continued operation under new ownership against the potential for integration challenges and workforce reductions.

What jobs are being cut in tech layoffs?
Tech layoffs have impacted virtually all departments across many companies, but certain roles have been disproportionately affected. While many layoffs from the large tech giants in 2023 and 2024 were software engineers, startups often tend to retain their core engineering talent, instead focusing layoffs on non-technical roles such as talent acquisition and recruiting, marketing, sales, and administrative support. This reflects a "doing more with less" mentality, where core product development remains critical. Google, for instance, cut roles across its sales, recruiting, product, and engineering teams. Amazon’s layoffs included jobs in its AWS cloud unit, at its social video platform Twitch, and in its advertising department. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg explicitly stated that the company’s recruiting department would be among the first to see job cuts, a common trend when companies scale back hiring. Product managers and design roles have also seen cuts, as companies prioritize lean product development cycles.

Where can I read recent tech layoff news?
Follow all of our tech layoffs news here and track which companies are cutting jobs with the comprehensive layoffs tracker above. Crunchbase News provides timely updates and in-depth analysis of the evolving tech employment landscape.

Where can I see layoffs in the last 24 hours?
While not updated daily, this Crunchbase Tech Layoffs Tracker is updated weekly, and often more frequently, with the latest job cuts at U.S. tech employers. For real-time, crowdsourced information, resources like layoffs.fyi can also provide very recent data.

Which companies are hiring for open tech jobs?
Despite the ongoing layoffs in the sector, many tech companies continue to actively hire for open roles, particularly in areas deemed strategic or high-growth. You can find out more about Crunchbase’s Actively Hiring filter, which helps identify companies with multiple open roles, indicating a growth trajectory or strategic investment in specific areas. You can find all of our job market-related news here for insights into where opportunities still exist amidst the flux.

Can I cite the Crunchbase Tech Layoffs Tracker?
Yes. Please cite Crunchbase News and include a direct link to this Tech Layoffs Tracker (https://news.crunchbase.com/startups/tech-layoffs/) in your publication or report.