Fortune: 90,000 tech layoffs
- Microsoft began its first voluntary U.S. buyout program as Meta prepared a 10% workforce cut, underscoring how 2026 tech layoffs keep climbing. - Layoffs.fyi counted 92,272 tech jobs lost across 98 companies by late April, while Meta and Microsoft alone disclosed more than 20,000 potential cuts. - Hiring has held up in applied AI, cybersecurity and infrastructure even as entry-level tech hiring slows. (kellyservices.com)
Tech layoffs topped 92,000 by late April, just as Microsoft rolled out its first-ever U.S. buyout program and Meta prepared a new round of cuts. (layoffs.fyi) (cnbc.com 1) (cnbc.com 2) Microsoft said on April 23 that some U.S. employees can take a one-time voluntary retirement package, the first such offer in the company’s 51-year history. The program covers workers at senior director level and below whose age and years of service add up to 70 or more. (cnbc.com) About 7% of Microsoft’s U.S. workforce is eligible, according to a person familiar with the plan cited by CNBC, and details go to managers and employees on May 7. Microsoft had 228,000 employees as of June 2025, including 125,000 in the United States. (cnbc.com) (microsoft.com) Meta said on April 23 that it will cut 10% of its workforce, and CNBC reported that Meta and Microsoft together disclosed more than 20,000 potential job reductions. CNBC said the two companies are also among the firms spending heavily on artificial-intelligence infrastructure. (cnbc.com) That mix of cuts and hiring is the point. Motion Recruitment’s 2026 Tech Salary Guide said artificial-intelligence adoption is slowing hiring for entry-level and generalist information-technology jobs while pushing up demand for specialized skills. (kellyservices.com) The firm said the strongest compensation growth is in data engineering, cybersecurity, infrastructure and applied artificial intelligence. That helps explain why companies are trimming broad middle layers while still recruiting for narrow, hard-to-fill roles. (kellyservices.com) Anthropic is one example of that split market. India Today reported on April 27 that the company is hiring in Bengaluru for Applied AI Architect and Applied AI Engineer roles even after Chief Executive Dario Amodei warned that routine coding work could be heavily disrupted by AI. (indiatoday.in) Amodei said earlier this year that coding could be among the first white-collar tasks heavily automated, but Anthropic’s open roles focus on deploying, evaluating and integrating AI systems for customers. The work is shifting from writing every line to reviewing outputs, building systems and handling edge cases. (indiatoday.in) The 2026 layoff wave still includes the old explanations: pandemic overhiring, margin pressure and reorganizations. What is newer is that some of the biggest cutters are also the biggest buyers of data centers, chips and AI talent. (cnbc.com) (layoffs.fyi) So the headline is not simply that tech is shrinking. By late April, the industry had already erased more than 92,000 jobs in 2026, while continuing to pay up for the engineers closest to AI, security and core infrastructure. (layoffs.fyi) (kellyservices.com)
