- Wednesday, March 05, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
The year 2023 has started on a devastating note for thousands of tech workers globally as companies have already laid off more people in the first five days of January than they did in the entire December last year.
Citing data from tracking website Layoffs Tracker, Moneycontrol reported that tech firms across the world have already announced layoffs that affected 28,906 workers till Thursday (5).
The figure is more than 64 per cent than 17,074 layoffs announced last month.
E-commerce giant Amazon, which announced this week layoffs 18,000 workers, accounts for more than half of the number of workers who lost their jobs so far.
CEO Andy Jassy said in a statement that the decision was taken to prioritise “what matters most to customers and the long-term health” of Amazon.
Salesforce, another tech giant, also announced plans to lay off thousands of workers.
In a regulatory planning, the company revealed its plans to slash 10 per cent of its 80,000-strong workers, the Moneycontrol report added.
“I’ve been thinking a lot about how we came to this moment. As our revenue accelerated through the pandemic, we hired too many people, leading into this economic downturn we’re now facing, and I take responsibility for that,” Marc Benioff, co-CEO of Salesforce, said in a letter to employees.
November 2022 saw the most number of layoffs, with 71,416 people from 204 companies losing their employment.
Meta, which announced its plans to let go of 11,000 workers the same month, topped the chart for sacking the most number of people last year.
HP, which announced that it was laying off 6,000 employees globally, followed next.
Among companies headquartered outside the US, Getir, which is a Turkish app-based grocery and courier delivery service, made the headlines for the biggest layoff announced in 2022. The Istanbul-based startup laid off 14 per cent of its workforce, or 4,480 employees.
