Amazon layoffs lead the 2023 numbers with 16,000 roles cut as of mid-May.
Layoffs at Alphabet, the parent company of Google, total about 12,000. Microsoft’s layoffs total about 10,000 workers, as do Facebook parent Meta’s layoffs. Together with Salesforce, these tech companies conducted the largest layoffs of the past two years, totaling tens of thousands of roles.
While those numbers are alarming, as of early April 2023 the combined layoffs at these companies represent only 8% of the number of new hires they made during the pandemic.
Many other venture-backed tech startups have also done layoffs, pointing to a slowdown in venture capital funding and falling startup valuations as factors in their decisions to conduct layoffs.