- Over 53,000 tech workers have been laid off in the first 10 weeks of 2026 — roughly 790 per day.
- Amazon alone accounts for 52% of all global tech layoffs this year with 16,000 cuts.
- Block fired half its workforce — 4,000 people — and blamed AI. Salesforce’s CEO says AI now does 30% to 50% of the company’s work.
- Wall Street is dumping stocks of companies deemed vulnerable to AI disruption, triggering a sector-wide sell-off.
- Nearly 60% of U.S. hiring managers plan to conduct layoffs in 2026, citing AI as the top reason.
The Numbers Have Never Looked This Bad
The tech industry has entered its fourth consecutive year of mass layoffs — and 2026 is on pace to be the worst yet. According to Layoffs.fyi, more than 53,000 tech workers have lost their jobs since January 1. That is 790 people per day. U.S.-based tech employers announced over 33,000 job cuts in January and February alone, up 51% compared with the same period last year, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
The names are no longer scrappy startups burning through seed money. They are the biggest companies in the world. Amazon is cutting 16,000 corporate employees — its second major round in five months. Oracle is reportedly planning to eliminate 20,000 to 30,000 positions as it pours cash into AI data centers. Morgan Stanley slashed 2,500. Capital One cut over 1,100. And then there is Block.
Block Fires Half Its Company — and Jack Dorsey Blames AI
Last week, Block announced it is laying off 4,000 people — half of its entire workforce. The financial tech company, which owns Square, Cash App, and Afterpay, is the highest-profile casualty of what critics are calling “AI washing”: using artificial intelligence as a convenient justification for financially motivated cuts.
“The intelligence tools we’re creating and using, paired with smaller and flatter teams, are enabling a kind of work which fundamentally changes what it means to build and run a company,” Jack Dorsey wrote in a post on X.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff was quick to distance himself. “We all know that company has its own unique issues,” he told reporters. But Benioff’s own record tells a different story. Salesforce has cut 4,000 customer support roles since 2025 — “because I need less heads,” he told Bloomberg. He now says AI handles 30% to 50% of the work at the company that once branded itself around “ohana” — the Hawaiian word for family.
The family is getting smaller.
AI Washing: The Layoff Excuse That Wall Street Loves
There is a growing body of evidence that many companies are citing AI to justify cuts that have nothing to do with automation — even as AI genuinely threatens 40% of jobs worldwide. Harvard Business Review reported in January that companies are laying off workers because of AI’s potential — not its performance. A Forrester study found that most firms announcing AI-driven layoffs do not have mature AI applications ready to replace those roles.
Even Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, acknowledged the trend. “Some companies are AI washing their layoffs,” he said in February. Saying “AI made us do it” is a cleaner narrative for investors than admitting the business is struggling.
The numbers back this up. Of the 1.2 million job cuts U.S. companies announced in 2025, AI was cited as a reason for just 55,000 — or 4.5%. The rest had nothing to do with automation. Yet the narrative has stuck, and it is reshaping how Wall Street values entire sectors.
Wall Street Is Now Punishing Companies for Being “AI-Vulnerable”
In February, investors began aggressively dumping stocks of companies they deemed at risk of AI disruption. Bloomberg reported that what started as a shake-up in software stocks quickly spread to wealth management, logistics, insurance, and real estate. Adobe, Salesforce, and ServiceNow have all seen their shares slide 25% to 30% since January.
The sell-off hit nearly every corner of the market. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq both dropped over 1% in a single week. Palantir fell 22%. The fear is not that AI is replacing workers today — it is that investors are betting it will, and companies are cutting pre-emptively to look lean for the market.
Andy Challenger, chief revenue officer at Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said he used to be skeptical that AI could replace workers. He isn’t anymore. “Artificial intelligence has overtaken the attention of these companies in such a dramatic way,” he said.
California’s Tech Workers Are Running Out of Options
For the people on the other side of these spreadsheets, the picture is bleak. The Los Angeles Times reported that laid-off tech workers in California are facing a job market unlike anything they have seen. Joseph Tinner, a former product instructor from the Bay Area, has spent almost a year applying for hundreds of roles — and getting rejected every time.
On LinkedIn, laid-off workers who have been out of work for over two years share stories of losing their confidence, their savings, and their homes. Roger Lee, the entrepreneur who created Layoffs.fyi in 2020, never expected the tracker would still be relevant six years later. “I do think six years of persistent layoffs have led many tech workers to re-evaluate the perceived ‘safety’ of tech jobs and their relationship with the industry overall,” he said.
Nearly 60% of U.S. hiring managers surveyed said they plan to conduct more layoffs in 2026. AI was the most-cited reason. Whether the machines are actually doing the work or not, the jobs are disappearing just the same — deepening the worst job market in two decades.
