More than 68,000 global technology sector employees have been laid off in the first few weeks of 2023, according to data compiled by the website Layoffs.fyi.
The website’s tally of global tech layoffs in 2023 has more than doubled since last week, when it recorded just over 25,000 layoffs.
The data suggest 2023 is on pace to surpass 2022 for global tech redundancies, with 219 tech companies laying off 68,149 employees in the first few weeks of the year. Last year, 1,024 tech companies laid off 154,336 employees, according to Layoffs.fyi.
Related: More than 25,000 global tech workers laid off in the first weeks of 2023, says layoff tracking site
Layoffs.fyi was set up by San Francisco–based startup founder Roger Lee to track layoffs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Lee is the co-founder of Human Interest, a digital 401(k) provider for small businesses, and Comprehensive, an employee-compensation platform.
Major U.S. tech companies are firmly in the layoffs spotlight. This week International Business Machines Corp. IBM, -0.04% and SAP SAP, -0.78% announced layoffs. Last week Google parent Alphabet Inc. GOOGL, +1.90% GOOG, +1.56% confirmed plans to lay off about 12,000 workers globally, and Intel Corp. INTC, -6.41% said it was slashing hundreds of jobs in Silicon Valley. Microsoft Corp. MSFT, +0.06% confirmed plans to cut about 10,000 positions.
The software maker’s layoffs did not come completely out of the blue. Earlier reports from Sky News and Bloomberg indicated that Microsoft was preparing to make cuts.
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Spotify Technology SPOT, +0.93% has also joined the list of companies making layoffs. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the streaming service said it was reducing its workforce by about 6%, which translates to about 588 jobs.
Earlier this month Coinbase Global Inc. COIN, +15.75% announced 950 job cuts in an attempt to cut costs.