The technology industry has laid off 90,524 workers across 215 companies in the first 95 days of 2026, a pace of 953 per day, according to data compiled by TrueUp.io. [1] The figure already approaches the full-year total for 2024 and shows no sign of decelerating as companies restructure around artificial intelligence.

Oracle set the pace. On March 31, the database giant began executing one of the largest single layoffs in tech history, cutting between 20,000 and 30,000 employees -- roughly 18 percent of its global workforce. [2] Employees learned their fate from a 6 AM automated email signed "Oracle Leadership," with no manager call and no prior warning. [3] The company reported its strongest quarterly revenue in history -- $17.2 billion -- the same quarter it approved the cuts.

Amazon followed with 16,000 layoffs earlier in the year, and Intel continued its restructuring from 2025. [1] The pattern is consistent: companies are posting record or near-record revenue while simultaneously eliminating positions they describe as redundant in an AI-augmented workflow.

The human cost concentrates in mid-career engineering and operations roles -- positions that once defined the industry's middle class. Entry-level hiring has slowed as companies redirect headcount budgets toward GPU clusters and inference infrastructure. Stanford's class of 2026 computer science graduates entered the job market last week into the weakest hiring environment since 2009. [3]

Profit margins are expanding. Headcount is contracting. The industry calls it efficiency. The people receiving the emails call it something else.

-- THEO KAPLAN, San Francisco