• Losses may hit 236,000 by December as U.S., India, Japan suffer more
• Intel, Microsoft, Panasonic, IBM, Meta suffer largest layoffs
Global technology sector may have lost over 166,000 jobs since the beginning of 2025, triggered by economic uncertainty, high interest rates, and an accelerating shift towards automation and artificial intelligence.
An analysis carried out by RationalFX revealed that it’s not just individuals being made redundant; entire roles that were once deemed essential are disappearing from the workforce. It noted that about 166,387 tech jobs had been lost since the beginning of the year.
Relying on figures from several sources, including TrueUp, TechCrunch, and multiple state WARN databases, RationalFX identified the companies with the most significant workforce reductions.
“So far in 2025, more than 166,000 people have been laid off in the global tech sector, and if the trend continues at the same rate, this number will exceed 235,000 by the end of the year,” it stated.
In the analysis, American companies, in particular, seem to be doubling down on downsizing and cost-cutting efforts, letting go of more than 118,000 employees not only in the United States but also in their offshore offices and manufacturing plants. The company cutting the most jobs so far in 2025 is Intel, which had close to 109,000 employees at the end of 2024 and by the end of 2025, plans to reduce headcount to 75,000, according to Reuters, effectively slashing more than 30,000 positions.
With the biggest tech hub in the world located in the U.S., RationalFX said it was no wonder that the vast majority of layoffs in 2025 were being reported by American companies. Currently, job cuts at US-based firms account for 71 per cent of the 166,387 recorded worldwide. Along with Intel, which has been reducing its headcount since last year, another tech giant to carry out mass cuts is Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India’s largest information technology and service company.
With its planned 12,000 reductions, India’s total layoffs exceed 17,000. Further, it said Panasonic’s recent four per cent workforce reduction, affecting 10,000 jobs, had pushed Japan into third place. The Japanese technology conglomerate’s latest layoffs are aimed at boosting profitability and streamlining operations.
The report observed that Switzerland, despite not being among the largest technology hubs in the world, was also one of the countries where some of this year’s most notable mass layoffs were occurring. STMicroelectronics, one of the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturers, announced in January that it would let go of about 3,000 employees. In June, the Plan-les-Ouates-based company said it planned to reduce its workforce by 5,000 over three years.
