The many rounds of IT layoffs throughout the history of the tech industry, both during economic downturns and other periods.
- 2001 dot-com bust: This period after the collapse of the dot-com bubble in the late 1990s saw massive layoffs in the tech sector. Companies like Cisco, Yahoo, and Oracle cut thousands of jobs.
- 2008 financial crisis: The global financial crisis that began in 2008 had a major impact on the tech industry. Companies like IBM, HP, Microsoft, and Intel all announced large layoff rounds, totaling tens of thousands of jobs.
- 2015-2016: Even during an economic expansion, the IT industry saw layoffs. Companies like Intel, HP, IBM, and Cisco all announced job cuts in the range of several thousand positions.
- 2018-2019: Cloud computing companies like Oracle, Microsoft, and Salesforce all announced layoff rounds of several thousand positions due to reorganizations, changing strategies, and slowing growth.
- 2020 COVID-19 pandemic: The pandemic led to a major economic downturn and many tech companies announced job cuts or hiring freezes. Uber, Airbnb, Twitter, and others let go of thousands of employees.
- 2022 increasing: With economic headwinds like high inflation and rising interest rates, some tech companies have recently announced layoffs or hiring slowdowns. Companies like Meta, Uber, Cisco, and Twitter have cut thousands of jobs so far in 2022.
Large layoff rounds in the thousands or tens of thousands of IT and tech jobs have been fairly common during economic downturns as well as periods of changing business conditions and strategies within the industry.
- 2001 dot-com bust layoffs:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/2001/03/20/tech-industry-layoffs-surge/f4fef4eb-1eac-4cf0-8f97-b668cb813ec2/ - 2008 financial crisis layoffs:
https://www.itworld.com/article/2835298/massive-tech-industry-layoffs-begin-post-financial-crisis.html
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/it-was-not-sustainable-or-real-tech-layoffs-approach-great-recession-levels-11669741730
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-siliconvalley-jobs-idUKTRE50M6YO20090126 - 2015-2016 layoffs at tech companies:
https://www.cnbc.com/2015/11/03/tech-layoffs-keep-coming-cisco-intel-and-sap-announce-cuts.html - 2018-2019 cloud computing layoffs:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/panosmourdoukoutas/2018/07/29/big-tech-layoffs-a-cloud-is-forming/#5f005e401b0c - 2020 COVID-19 pandemic layoffs:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/these-tech-companies-have-announced-job-cuts-or-hiring-freezes-amid-coronavirus-pandemic-11586016201
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy-idUSKBN29C1R9
https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2021/beyond-bls/are-temporary-layoffs-becoming-permanent-during-covic-19.htm
https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/keep-or-cut-workers-how-companies-reacted-to-the-covid-19-crisis - 2022 increasing layoffs:
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/27/tech-layoffs-big-tech-companies-announce-job-cuts-downsizing-in-2022.html
https://www.reuters.com/technology/amazon-layoff-signals-more-pain-tech-sector-recession-fears-mount-2023-01-05/
https://www.npr.org/2023/01/26/1150884331/layoffs-tech-meta-microsoft-google-amazon-economy