More than 124,000 workers worldwide have lost jobs in the tech industry in the first seven months of this year, already surpassing last year’s total cuts. The wave of layoffs underscores growing concerns that white-collar workers are facing a broader employment crisis as artificial intelligence and corporate restructuring accelerate.
Oracle has cut 21,000 jobs, Amazon more than 17,000, while Dell and Meta have each reduced staff by more than 11,000 and 10,000, respectively. California, a major hub for white-collar employment in the United States, accounted for more than 16,000 layoffs in the same period, making it a major center of the restructuring.
The cuts go beyond a typical downturn tied to the pandemic-era hiring boom. Companies are using layoffs and reorganization to adapt to AI, with middle-management and other higher-paid professional roles increasingly in the crosshairs. At the same time, firms are channeling savings into AI investment, with Oracle saying it will spend $90 billion on AI infrastructure through fiscal 2027 and Amazon raising its capital spending to about $200 billion this year.
Some experts say the impact is especially troubling because it is not limited to one company or one sector. The layoffs are being driven not only by cost-cutting, but by a shift in how companies organize work as AI takes on more tasks once done by office workers.
