Tech layoffs: Amazon, Salesforce & others cut nearly 30,000 jobs in first 40 days of 2026

We are in the middle of the second month of 2026 and nearly 30,000 jobs have been cut across the global tech sector in the first 40 days of the year. Online retail giant Amazon accounted for the single largest layoff in 2026 after the company announced to cut about 16,000 roles in late January. According to Layoffs.fyi, 26 other major companies that announced workforce reductions include Salesforce, Meta, Workday, Autodesk, Pinterest, Expedia, Zillow, Ericsson, and ASML. Several firms reduced headcount by hundreds of employees, while smaller companies carried out more limited cuts. Here’s a look at some of the biggest tech layoffs announced so far in 2026, based on data compiled by Layoffs.fyi.

Amazon cut 16,000 jobs

Amazon said in January that it is laying off 16,000 employees globally, marking the company’s second biggest job cut after October last year when it laid off 14,000 roles. Announcing the job cuts, HR chief Beth Galetti said in a memo that teams that didn’t finish restructuring in October have now completed the process. She promised this won’t become a recurring pattern, but added that adjustments will continue “in a world that’s changing faster than ever.”

Salesforce quietly lays off nearly 1,000 employees

A Business Insider report recently said that Salesforce has cut nearly 1,000 jobs. Impacted teams include marketing, product management, data analytics, and Salesforce’s Agentforce AI product that the company’s CEO Marc Benioff has previously said “is part and parcel of Salesforce”. The report said that many of the laid off employees as part of Salesforce job cuts shared on LinkedIn that their roles had been eliminated. At least nine posts reviewed showed job losses across different teams, it says, adding two employees also confirmed the layoffs while speaking to the publication.

Meta layoffs 1,500 staff

Earlier this month, Meta announced to reduce its workforce by around 1,500 employees. In an email (seen by the Silicon Valley Business Journal), a Meta spokesperson said, “We said last month that we were shifting some of our investment from metaverse toward wearables. This is part of that effort, and we plan to reinvest the savings to support the growth of wearables this year.”The job cuts come as the company shifts investment from its metaverse division to wearable technology.Other tech companies that announced job cutsApart from Amazon and Salesforce, several other major technology companies reported layoffs in the first 40 days of 2026, according to data compiled by Layoffs.fyi. Cloud-based HR and finance software provider Workday has cut about 400 jobs, while Autodesk announced layoffs affecting roughly 1,000 roles. Pinterest, on the other hand, has cut about 700 jobs during the same period.In the travel and consumer internet space, Expedia carried out two rounds of layoffs, cutting a combined 200 jobs, while Zillow reduced its headcount by around 200 employees. Peloton announced job cuts affecting about 11% of its workforce, and Vimeo also reported layoffs.

ASML cut around 1,700 jobs in the Netherlands, Ericsson reduced about 1,600 roles in Sweden, and Germany-based AI company Aleph Alpha cut around 50 jobs. In Israel, Playtika announced layoffs affecting about 500 employees, while eToro and StoreDot also reported job cuts.Smaller startups and crypto firms were not spared. Companies such as Entropy and Polygon reported workforce reductions, indicating that the impact of layoffs extended across company sizes, funding stages, and sectors early in 2026.