January has not over yet, but the year 2026 has shown a difficult time for tech employees across the world. IT employee has been hard hit by layoffs from big tech industries, like Amazon, Meta, and TCS. Although the numbers could be lower than at the beginning of 2025, a threat is looming over as job cuts continue, as IT companies are in a mood to adopt more AI than human power to write code for developing web pages, applications, sand oftware.
Companies have been involved in hiring AI agents that automate routine tasks in order to save company space, cost and to reduce reliance on developers and coders. In 2025, 269 tech firms had fired a total of 1,23,941 tech employees, a decline from 1,50,000 total job cuts across 549 companies in 2024, as per the data on layoffs tracker Layoffs.fyi.
Around 55,000 people were sacked in the United States in 2025, according to consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Over 41% of companies worldwide are likely to minimise their workforce in the next five years and inject AI in their work system, according to survey conducted by the 2025 World Economic Forum (WEF)
Amazon Layoffs 2026
Amazon is sacking around 16,000 employees, which is the record layoffs by the e-commerce giant since 2025 October, when the company said it would layoff 14,000 employees. The e-commerce platform has taken such a decision to adopt AI.
The company believed that AI is enabling businesses to innovate much faster than ever before. In an internal letter to its employees last year. The Amazon had said that this is the generation of AI, which has evolved the internet ever since.
Also Read | Amazon's 'accidental' layoff mail sparks fresh fears of job cuts at AWS.
Beth Galetti, the senior vice president of people experience and technology at Amazon, also described the latest round of layoffs as part of broader efforts to cut back on bureaucracy inside the company.
Meta Layoffs
The parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp is laying off around 10% of its employees in its Reality Labs division, which has developed several technologies such as the Metaverse. The sector has 15,000 workforce who are working on virtual reality headsets and virtual social networks.
The section also developed Meta's Quest mixed-reality headsets, smart glasses made up of EssilorLuxottica’s Ray-Ban and augmented-reality glasses, according to The Indian Express report. The metaverse had been headed by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg whose main project of the Meta venture, which already spent over $60 billion since 2020.
Pinterest Layoffs
Pinterest announced that it will cut around 15% jobs as part of a global restructuring plan, as per a report by Business Insider. It is also reportedly shrinking its office spaces. According to the company's spokesperson, the company is planning to invest in AI-based technology and looking to hire 'AI-proficient talent.'
“As a result, we’ve made the difficult decision to say goodbye to some of our team members. We are grateful for their service and supporting them with separation packages and benefits,” they added.
TCS Layoffs
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has said that it will continue laying off its employees in the March quarter as part of its planned 2% decrease in headcount. In July last year, Indian IT services announced that it would cut at least 12,000 employees in the financial year 2025-26 from middle and senior level management.
Also Read | TCS Layoffs: Over 30,000 Jobs Cut in 6 Months Due To AI, Automation.
Until the company's Q3 result has completed, around 1% of the planned cuts with the rest expected to happen in the coming months. In the first three quarters ofthe financial year 2025-26, the firm net shed 25,816 employees, but this number is inclusive of voluntary exits too.
Expedia Group Layoffs
Expedia Group has confirmed that it laid off employees in January, though the company has not disclosed how many workers were affected. The travel booking firm has also said it has opened new roles as part of an internal restructuring process.
In a statement, an Expedia Group spokesperson said the company is adjusting its workforce to align with future needs. “We are eliminating roles as well as opening some new roles as we remain disciplined about assessing the skills we need for the future. We are also simplifying our structure and reducing organisational layers to move faster and with more accountability,” the spokesperson said.
The company added that the decisions were difficult and expressed appreciation for the employees who have been impacted. Expedia’s announcement comes at a time when several major technology companies have initiated job cuts in the first month of 2026. Despite the layoffs, the company maintains that it is continuing to hire for select positions as part of its long-term strategy.