Tech Layoffs Surge: March Worst Month in Two Years as Companies Slashed 38,000 Jobs, Layoff Tracker Claims

Tech companies across the globe are working to integrate AI-powered tools into their daily workflows, citing higher efficiency and lower costs. This appears to be a great proposition for the tech firms, who can increase their margins, increase their profits, and keep their shareholders happy, even if they record the same revenue every quarter, year after year. However, this unprecedented AI adoption has led to massive layoffs across the industry. Another phenomenon fueling the dismissals is the mass pandemic-era hiring, when the blue-collar employees at tech firms ballooned exponentially.

While companies laying off employees en masse is not new, March 2026 could have been the worst month for tech workers, seeing the highest number of layoffs in the past two years.

Over 92,000 Workers Laid Off Between January 1 and April 20

Citing data from the layoffs tracker, Layoffs.fyi, TechRadar reports that March 2026 was the worst month for tech employees, as companies across the globe laid off about 38,000 employees in a single month. The tracker also suggests that between January 1 and April 20, 98 tech firms have dismissed 92,272 employees. The list includes companies that are publicly listed on stock exchanges or have raised a significant amount of funding.

While the 38,000 figure seems huge, a significant contribution came from Oracle, the Texas-based software giant, which laid off 30,000 employees in one go, as the firm has begun investing heavily into building its AI infrastructure. Last year, a report highlighted that the company is buying around 4,00,000 Nvidia GB200 chips worth $40 billion (about Rs. 3,79,164 crore) to lease computing power to OpenAI.

Most recently, a report suggested that Mark Zuckerberg-led Meta is letting go of 200 employees, as the US-based tech giant further pushes into the AI era. The company reportedly also plans to gradually phase out the blue-collar middle manager roles to have leaner teams and a streamlined hierarchical structure.

However, March also saw a few layoff announcements from tech firms, which were interestingly not related to AI. On March 24, Epic Games' Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Tim Sweeney announced that the Fortnite developer is laying off more than 1,000 workers. Sweeney further said that these layoffs at Epic Games were not “related to AI”, while citing industry-wide challenges as the primary reason behind the dismissals.