Tech industry lays off nearly 80,000 employees in the first quarter of 2026 — almost 50% of affected positions cut due to AI

78,557 workers were laid off between January 1 and April 2026.

More than 76% of the affected positions were located in the U.S.

Nikkei Asia reports 37,638 of the cuts are attributed to AI and workflow automation.

Executives commented on AI’s role: Cognizant’s Babak Hodjat said impacts may take over a year, could be used as a financial scapegoat, and layoffs might occur within six months to a year; Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, Ford’s Jim Farley, and OpenAI’s Sam Altman also warned or commented about AI-driven layoffs and AI washing.

A Stanford study found many entry-level coding and customer-service jobs affected; an MIT simulation showed AI could replace nearly 12% of the U.S. workforce; Oracle cut more than 10,000 positions.