Global tech sector records over 1.63 lakh layoffs this year to date

New Delhi: Global technology companies have announced 1,63,427 layoffs since the start of 2026, with AI cited as a factor in 91,215 of those job cuts, a new report has said.

The report from TradingPlatforms said enterprise software accounted for roughly 8.14 per cent of the total job cuts, making it the fifth most affected tech subsector after Cloud and SaaS (37,492 layoffs), e‑commerce and marketplaces (22,633), IT services (16,756) and social media (13,592).

Nearly 88.6 per cent enterprise software layoffs this year have occurred at US-based companies, with 11,792 of the 13,308 job cuts recorded globally.

Cisco recorded the largest number of layoffs among US-based enterprise companies, with 4,000 positions cut, followed by Amdocs with 2,900 and Autodesk with 1,000.

In Asia and the Middle East, workforce reductions are spread across key innovation centres, with Israel recording the highest number of layoffs, followed by India and Singapore. The cuts span a wide range of sectors, including AI startups, e-commerce platforms, and cybersecurity firms.

Israel ranks a distant second after the US, with 660 enterprise software layoffs across two companies.

On July 22, Israeli workplace software maker Monday.com announced plans to cut around 20 per cent of its global workforce, or roughly 620 employees, as it restructured around its AI Work Platform.

No company has reduced its workforce more aggressively in 2026 than Oracle, which has cut 25,254 roles across multiple rounds since January.

While the company had already begun trimming staff toward the end of 2025, the scale of layoffs escalated sharply in March, when thousands of employees across the United States, India, Canada, and Mexico were dismissed in a sudden wave of cuts.

Canada’s information management software company OpenText announced in July 2026 that it had cut around 2 per cent of its global workforce, or roughly 400 employees, as part of “ongoing organisational planning”. OpenText said the impact on its Canadian workforce was minimal, despite the company being headquartered in the Kitchener-Waterloo area.

Cisco said the roughly $1 billion in restructuring costs from its cuts would go towards its AI strategy.

Monday.com described its 20 per cent workforce reduction as a restructuring around its “AI Work Platform” ServiceNow’s cuts landed alongside a separate milestone, its AI portfolio crossing $1 billion in annual contract value.

Investors rewarded all three companies as Cisco’s shares jumped 17 per cent in after-hours trading, Monday.com’s rose 2.3 per cent, and ServiceNow’s climbed roughly 9 per cent over the following week.

Stanislava Savisheva, analyst at TradingPlatforms, said that all these layoffs were blamed on AI.

“The message from markets is increasingly clear: massive waves of layoffs are now seen as a sign of discipline, as long as the story is some kind of pivot toward AI. Fewer employees, framed the right way, now reads as a stronger business, with its priorities straight,” Savisheva said.

IANS