Layoff Wave: More Than 30,000 Tech Employees Lose Jobs Globally In 1st Month Of 2024

The year 2024 started off on a worse note for the tech employees, as more than 122 tech companies and startups laid off more than 30,000 workers in January itself, while the job cuts continue unabated.

According to data compiled by layoff-tracking website Layoffs.fyi, 122 tech companies have shown the door to 31, 751 employees (as of February 3). Tech companies, including startups, around the world fired more than 425,000 employees in 2022 and 2023, with more than 36,000 employees being sacked in India in the same time frame.

Zoom

Video communication platform Zoom is laying off nearly 150 employees, or less than 2 per cent of the company's workforce. In addition to Zoom, cloud software vendor Okta also announced plans to lay off about 400 employees, or about 7 per cent of its workforce.

PayPal

Online payment gateway PayPal kicked off layoffs last month that will affect at least 9 per cent of its workforce -- about 2,500 employees.

iRobot

iRobot, which makes consumer robots, has announced to lay off around 350 employees -- about 31 per cent of its workforce -- and its founder and CEO, Colin Angle, would also step down.

Salesforce

Enterprise software major Salesforce has become the latest tech company to make job cuts, laying off around 700 employees.

Swiggy

Online food delivery platform Swiggy is cutting almost seven per cent of its workforce, or about 350-400 jobs.

eBay

E-commerce platform eBay is sacking around 1,000 employees, or 9 per cent of its full-time workforce, and the company will also lay off an unspecified number of contractors "over the coming months."

YouTube

Google-owned YouTube was laying off at least 100 employees from its creator management and operations teams. After laying off nearly 1,000 employees, Google was reportedly slashing "a few hundred" more jobs in its advertising sales team as part of an ongoing restructuring exercise. Google CEO Sundar Pichai has also warned employees to brace themselves for more job cuts this year.

Veeam Software

Global data management solutions provider Veeam Software has reportedly laid off 300 employees.

Polygon Labs

Polygon Labs, the team focused on building the layer-2 blockchain Polygon, has laid off about 19 per cent of its workforce, or 60 employees.