The dismissal of an engineer is Data shows it's accelerating. The surge in layoffs comes after human capital reductions slowed significantly in the second half of 2023, with us writing that “technical layoffs are largely a thing of the past.” At the time, the number of reported layoffs had been on the decline for months, reaching a low so low that it seemed like no big deal.
How has the situation changed? At the time, we saw technology concerns being alleviated to some extent by rising valuations for tech companies, making large-scale layoffs seem to have lost their luster compared to more targeted general layoffs. I assumed you could see it. Then 2024 arrived and the scenario reversed.
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The latest wave of layoffs is hitting technology companies large and small. Parcel delivery company Veho this week cut 65 jobs, about a fifth of its total workforce. After a surge in revenue growth in 2023, midsize tech companies are cutting back as well. Brex's recent layoffs make it clear that even some of the most well-known and well-funded startup technology companies feel they have too many people. And major companies are cutting jobs as well, with Microsoft laying off 1,900 employees yesterday and Google planning further cuts throughout the year. In the latter case, we would expect the search giant's total job cuts to exceed forced departures, as rolling layoffs are a good way to tell employees to quit.
Anecdotes are not data, so we need to look at historical trends to put these layoffs in context. Thankfully, we have that information at our fingertips, so we can report that the spike in layoffs you're feeling is actually a real wave. Let's dig into a working hypothesis about how rapidly technology companies are taking people out of the business and why layoffs occur so frequently and in depth.
Looking at the data
Engineer layoffs bottomed out in September 2023. That month, Layoffs.FYI counted just 4,707 technical layoffs, with a total of 65 known layoffs. These numbers increased throughout the last months of the year, reaching just over 8,000 in November and 7,000 in December, with known reductions of 72 and 56 respectively.
