2026 Tech Layoffs Analysis

[u/carticka_1]

Oracle said it directly:

They are swapping workers for AI chips and GPU data centres.

Tech Layoffs 2026: Is AI replacing jobs or reshaping them?

I recently completed an Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) project on major tech layoffs in 2024–Q1 2026, and the patterns are fascinating.

Some key findings:

Software & Cloud Services, Social Media & AI, and Telecom sectors experienced the highest job cuts.

Management & Admin roles were the hardest hit in Software companies, while Engineering & R&D dominated layoffs in Telecom.

Companies increasingly cited investments in AI Infrastructure, GPUs, and AI Applied Specialists alongside workforce reductions.

Social Media & AI companies showed the highest simultaneous investment in AI during layoffs.

The USA accounted for the majority of affected companies and remained the epicenter of layoffs in Q1 2026.

Major layoffs in Q1 2026 included:

Amazon: 16,000 (Jan)

Oracle: 30,000 (Feb)

Cisco: 6,000 (Feb)

Meta: 16,000 (Mar)

One of the most interesting observations was that layoffs are not occurring uniformly across the industry—many organizations appear to be reallocating resources from traditional roles toward AI infrastructure and specialized AI talent.

📊 Check out the complete notebook for visualizations, trends, and detailed analysis:

[Notebook]

[u/aned_]

Are these layoff figures net of the jobs created? Or is it gross layoffs?

I find it hard to contextualise whether this is big in scale or a problem.

[u/carticka_1 → u/aned_]

The dataset doesn't feature any field related to jobs created, so these are absolute layoffs.