The running tech layoff total for 2026 reached 60,247 on Friday, according to Layoffs.fyi — up from 59,821 on Wednesday. Meta's 700-person cut this week was the largest single action. Of the total, approximately 12,049 (20 percent) were explicitly attributed by the laying-off companies to AI or automation replacing the roles. [1]

The AI-attribution rate has risen from 12 percent in January to 20 percent in March. The industry is building the technology that replaces its own workers.

-- DAVID CHEN, Beijing