Tech Layoffs 2023: Over 108,000 Employees Have Lost Their Jobs In 2 Months

As the tech industry continues to reel from the economic downturn, more than a hundred thousand employees have been laid off so far this year alone, according to the latest data from a global layoffs tracker.

Less than two months into 2023, 108,346 employees from 380 tech companies have been affected by the widespread layoffs, as of Sunday, data from layoffs.fyi showed. For comparison, the tech industry cut a total of 160,997 jobs in 2022.

As per the tracker, the latest company to announce lay-offs is Chinese tech giant Tencent. 300 employees were affected by the Shenzhen-based company's Friday workforce reductions.

Among the companies that laid off more than 300 employees this month are software firm DocuSign with 680 affected workers, ByteDance's virtual reality unit Pico Interactive where 400 employees were laid off, and web developer Wix which slashed 370 jobs.

The tech companies that accounted for the most number of affected employees so far in February are laptop giant Dell (6,650), Yahoo (1,600), cloud communications software maker Twilio (1,500), Indian EdTech firm Byju's (1,500), Zoom (1,300), GoDaddy (530), fintech company Affirm (500) and eBay (500).

In January, the tech companies that announced the most layoffs were Google (12,000), Microsoft (10,000), Amazon (8,000), Salesforce (8,000), Dutch tech giant Philips (6,000), tech corporation IBM (3,900), software company SAP (3,000), Paypal (2,000), online furniture store Wayfair (1,750) and online marketplace OLX Group (1,500).

Aside from thousands of employees affected by the widespread tech layoffs within the first two months of the year, some companies also announced that they were cutting operational costs by shuttering some offices or departments.

The companies that announced some office or department closures include trucking software company Convoy, Affirm (crypto unit), and Coinbase, as per TechCrunch.

Other companies that recently announced office closures are Walmart (three U.S. tech hubs), Twitter (two India offices), and Microsoft-owned GitHub, which said last week that it is ditching its physical headquarters to go fully remote.

Meanwhile, foreign workers in the U.S. remain jittery as the tech layoffs have affected even the most prominent companies that showed resilience during the pandemic.

Some foreign employees whose work visas will be invalid unless they find a new employer have expressed their discomfort over the situation. "I haven't processed the information yet. I am still in a state of shock," former health tech worker Sakshi Nanda told the Los Angeles Times.

"I don't have much time. Every day, it's like a race against time," Nanda said.

Some observers believe it may be time to review whether the timeframe for H-1B worker visa holders should be extended due to the current circumstances, the outlet reported.