Layoffs keep piling up in 2026

Tech layoffs are still piling up in 2026, and the count depends on which tracker you use. Layoffs.fyi, a widely watched tracker run by startup founder Roger Lee, showed 71,447 tech employees laid off across 80 tech companies as of April 8, 2026. Yahoo Tech, citing data from TrueUp, put the figure even higher at more than 90,500 layoffs so far this year. That gap tells you two things at once: the cuts are large, and the exact total moves with the methodology. (layoffs.fyi) (tech.yahoo.com) The broad direction, though, is not in dispute. By early April 2026, multiple trackers and news outlets were describing the first quarter as another heavy period for job cuts across software, cloud, gaming, and internet companies. Yahoo Tech reported that March alone saw more than 38,000 layoffs across the sector. (tech.yahoo.com) Some of the biggest cuts have come from companies that are also spending aggressively on artificial intelligence. Yahoo Tech reported that Oracle began a large layoff round at the end of March, with reports projecting thousands of affected workers, while the same roundup listed cuts at Meta, Amazon, Epic Games, and Vimeo. Several of those reductions were linked by reporting to higher artificial intelligence spending, restructuring, or efforts to redirect money toward new priorities. (tech.yahoo.com) That combination can look strange from the outside: companies are talking nonstop about growth in artificial intelligence, yet they are cutting payroll at the same time. In practice, the two moves often fit together. Firms are trying to free up cash for data centers, chips, cloud capacity, and software tools while also pushing managers to protect profit margins after years of uneven post-pandemic hiring. Goldman Sachs said the impact of artificial intelligence is already being felt in tech, knowledge, and creative sectors, even if the full transition is expected to play out over about a decade. (goldmansachs.com) Goldman Sachs’ March 18, 2026 labor-market analysis helps explain why the current wave feels different from an ordinary cyclical slowdown. The firm said the United States labor market is already seeing artificial intelligence effects in tech-related jobs, and its base case assumes wide adoption over roughly 10 years, during which 6% to 7% of workers could be displaced. Goldman also estimates that artificial intelligence can potentially automate tasks accounting for 25% of all work hours in the United States. (goldmansachs.com) That does not mean artificial intelligence simply erases jobs one-for-one. Goldman Sachs also argues that new demand will appear in other parts of the economy, especially around the physical infrastructure needed to support the boom. Its researchers said the United States alone may need roughly 500,000 net new jobs by 2030 to meet rising power demand tied to data centers, including work for engineers, electricians, lineworkers, and construction crews. (goldmansachs.com) The problem for laid-off software and product workers is that new jobs do not automatically appear in the same city, at the same pay, or in the same kind of work. Goldman Sachs said workers displaced from knowledge industries by artificial intelligence may be poorly matched to the labor that is most needed next, which could include both lower-wage service roles and specialized infrastructure jobs. That mismatch is one reason the transition can feel brutal even if total employment eventually recovers. (goldmansachs.com) Recent reporting on Goldman’s newer analysis adds another warning. Yahoo Finance reported that Goldman found workers displaced from “technology-disrupted occupations” historically took an average 3% cut in real earnings compared with workers displaced from more stable occupations, based on longitudinal survey data covering more than 20,000 workers since 1980. The same report said those workers also faced a higher risk of unemployment for years after displacement. (finance.yahoo.com) In other words, the hit is not just losing one job. It can mean a longer search, a weaker next offer, and slower earnings growth over time. AOL’s coverage of the Goldman analysis said real earnings for technology-displaced workers grew nearly 10 percentage points less over the 10 years after a job loss. That is the kind of long-tail damage economists call “scarring”: the labor-market wound heals, but not cleanly. (aol.com) This is why the 2026 layoff story is bigger than a running total on a tracker. The headline number matters, but the more important shift is underneath it: companies are not just trimming excess after a hiring binge. Many are reorganizing around a new cost structure in which artificial intelligence spending, automation, and margin discipline take priority over broad-based hiring. Goldman Sachs’ own view is that the transition is likely to raise unemployment only modestly in the aggregate if it unfolds gradually, but it also warns that a faster, more front-loaded shift would have much larger effects. (layoffs.fyi) (goldmansachs.com) For workers, that makes 2026 feel less like a pause and more like a sorting event. Employers still want some kinds of technical talent, especially around infrastructure, power, and highly specialized engineering, but they are more selective about generalist hiring and more willing to ask smaller teams to do more with automation. The result is a labor market where layoffs can coexist with continued investment, and where “tech jobs” no longer move as one block. (goldmansachs.com) (tech.yahoo.com) So the clearest way to read the 2026 numbers is this: whether the running count is 71,447 on Layoffs.fyi or more than 90,500 on TrueUp via Yahoo Tech, the industry is still cutting deeply, and the cuts are happening during an artificial intelligence buildout rather than in spite of it. That is what makes this year’s layoffs harder to dismiss as a temporary hangover from 2022 and 2023. (layoffs.fyi) (tech.yahoo.com)