2022–2025 video game industry layoffs

Intel Corp. laid off the largest number of people among U.S. tech employers in 2024, by our count. The semiconductor giant laid off more than 15,000 employees last year.

It was followed closely by electric-car maker Tesla, which cut more than 14,000 roles, and networking company Cisco, with more than 10,000 total roles cut.

In 2023, Amazon layoffs led the numbers with 16,000 roles cut. Layoffs at Alphabet, the parent company of Google, totaled about 12,000, and Microsoft’s layoffs totaled about 10,000 workers in 2023, as did Facebook parent Meta’s layoffs.

Many venture-backed tech startups have also done layoffs as venture capital investment has fallen sharply since the peak in 2021, and falling startup valuations factor into their decisions to conduct layoffs.

Yes, more layoffs are likely coming. While there are signs that the volume of layoffs is tapering, experts we talked to expect job cuts in the tech sector to continue for the foreseeable future as large tech companies and startups continue to battle economic headwinds.

Seed and early-stage startups in particular may continue to conduct layoffs in an attempt to extend their cash runways in a difficult venture funding environment.

Tech layoffs noticeably increased at the start of 2022, ramped up in 2023, waned somewhat in 2024 and have continued in 2025.

Tech layoffs started to surge in 2022 and continued in 2023 and 2024. Companies have given various reasons for conducting layoffs.

Some companies — especially those in the e-commerce sector — nearly doubled their employee headcount to meet consumer demand during the COVID-19 pandemic’s stay-at-home mandates, and later found that they were overstaffed as daily life returned to normal.

Large tech employers such as Salesforce and Google parent Alphabet noted that their post-pandemic layoffs followed several years of rapid hiring fueled by fast growth — between 2019 and 2022, some companies nearly doubled their employee headcount. Some large tech companies also cited slowing sales and fears of a recession as reasons for downsizing.

Venture-backed startups, meanwhile, also cut jobs as a way to cut costs and preserve their cash reserves, as venture funding fell significantly after the peak in 2021. Some startups that ran out of cash and couldn’t raise new funding found themselves filing for bankruptcy or shutting down.