Technology
Chart: All the Major Tech Layoffs in 2024 So Far
See this visualization first on the Voronoi app.
Charted: All the Major Tech Layoffs in 2024 So Far
This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on Apple or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.
Layoffs tend to pick up in January as companies look to restructure, reorganize, and re-prioritize based on their forecast for the new year.
For the tech industry that has seen quite a bit of upheaval in the last two years, 2024 seems to be a continuation of a mix of earlier factors at play.
We visualize some of the bigger layoffs in the year so far, from video game software provider Unity to big tech bastion Google. Data is sourced from Layoffs.fyi, an aggregator that has been collecting tech layoff news since 2020.
Only those companies with a specified number of employees let go have been included in our list.
List of Companies That Have Cut Jobs in 2024
While the big tech companies tend to take up the headlines, there’s quite a bit of churn in the broader space at the moment.
For example, Milwaukee-based short-term rental company FrontDesk did not herald the new year with any joy: the entire 200-strong staff was laid off on the second day of 2024. The current macroeconomic environment is not friendly to companies with large upfront capital costs, as seen with the WeWork saga last year.
Here’s the full list of tech and tech-adjacent companies that have announced job cuts since the beginning of the month.
2024 | Company | Jobs Cut | % of Company Employees | Industry |
---|---|---|---|---|
Jan 02 | The Messenger | 24 | N/A | Media |
Jan 02 | FrontDesk | 200 | 100% | Travel |
Jan 03 | Orca Security | 60 | 15% | Security |
Jan 03 | Lazada Group | 100 | 30% | Retail |
Jan 04 | Trigo | 30 | 15% | Retail |
Jan 05 | Cue Health | 94 | N/A | Healthcare |
Jan 06 | NanoString Tech | 50 | 9% | Healthcare |
Jan 08 | BenchSci | 70 | 17% | Healthcare |
Jan 08 | Pitch | 80 | 67% | Other |
Jan 08 | Flexe | 99 | 38% | Logistics |
Jan 08 | NuScale Power | 154 | 28% | Energy |
Jan 08 | Flipkart | 1,100 | 5% | Retail |
Jan 08 | Unity | 1,800 | 25% | Other |
Jan 09 | Humane | 10 | 4% | Hardware |
Jan 09 | Rent the Runway | 37 | 10% | Retail |
Jan 09 | Uber Freight | 40 | N/A | Logistics |
Jan 09 | Nevro | 63 | 5% | Healthcare |
Jan 09 | Branch | 85 | N/A | Finance |
Jan 09 | Twitch | 500 | 35% | Consumer |
Jan 10 | 60 | N/A | Consumer | |
Jan 10 | BeamBenefits | 74 | N/A | Healthcare |
Jan 10 | IAC | 330 | N/A | Consumer |
Jan 10 | 1,000 | 0.5% | Consumer | |
Jan 11 | Sisense | 60 | 13% | Data |
Jan 11 | Audible | 100 | 5% | Media |
Jan 11 | Inmobi | 125 | 5% | Marketing |
Jan 11 | Discord | 170 | 17% | Consumer |
Jan 11 | Playtika | 300 | 10% | Consumer |
Jan 11 | New Work SE | 400 | N/A | Consumer |
Jan 12 | GrabCAD | 13 | N/A | Other |
Jan 12 | Veeam | 300 | N/A | Data |
Jan 16 | First Mode | 48 | 20% | Transport |
Jan 16 | SonderMind | 49 | 17% | Healthcare |
Jan 16 | Sirplus | 60 | N/A | Food |
Jan 16 | YouTube | 100 | 5% | Media |
Jan 18 | Amazon | 30 | N/A | Retail |
Jan 19 | Wayfair | 1,650 | 13% | Retail |
Jan 21 | SolarEdge | 900 | 16% | Energy |
Jan 22 | Riot Games | 530 | 11% | Consumer |
Jan 22 | TikTok | 60 | N/A | Consumer |
Jan 23 | Brex | 282 | 20% | Finance |
Jan 23 | Vroom | 800 | 80% | Transport |
Note: The N/A label denotes missing information from the source on the percentage of the workforce cut. Data current up to January 23th, 2024.
Layoff season really began to gather steam by the start of the second week of January when video game software developer Unity cut a staggering one-fourth of their workforce, amounting to 1,800 employees.
A day later, streaming platform Twitch (owned by Amazon) fired 500 employees, or about 35% of their workforce.
Between January 10–11th, a flurry of similar announcements:
- Voice, video, and text app Discord cut 170 jobs, 17% of their employee pool.
- Amazon-owned Audible let go of 100 employees. In fact, the e-commerce giant announced that “several hundreds” of employees in Prime Video and its studios division were also let go.
- Two other layoff announcements from the Big Tech space: Google let go of 1,000 employees across several divisions (hardware, advertising, search, maps) and Meta-owned Instagram cut 60 jobs.
On the 16th, YouTube (also owned by Google) laid off 100 people, saying they had six months to apply to different roles within the company.
Will 2024 See As Many Tech Layoffs as 2023?
Last year was brutal for the tech sector with 1,186 companies laying off about 262,242 employees in 2023. January saw the brunt of it, with nearly 90,000 reported job cuts across companies like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft.
Year | January Layoffs | Total Layoffs |
---|---|---|
2022 | 510 | 164,969 |
2023 | 89,809 | 262,242 |
2024 (YTD) | 10,963 | 10,963 |
Note: Data current up to January 23th, 2024.
So far in 2024, in an extension of events from the last year, there are two factors at play, both rooted in the pandemic. The video game industry (and the larger tech industry) say they over-hired in 2020 and 2021 to ride the increase in digital activity after social-distancing rules went into effect around the world.
In the post-pandemic world however, companies now say they simply expanded too quickly. Discord’s CEO Jason Citron said the company grew its workforce 5x since 2020 and now needed to scale back to “sharpen focus” and “bring agility” to the organization.
Meanwhile, for the larger tech companies (Google, Amazon, and Meta) the rapid rise of AI is causing a shift in internal priorities. While still rectifying the pandemic over-hiring, the companies are also trimming down other projects as they attempt to catch up with rival Microsoft whose OpenAI still remains a market leader in the space.
“We have ambitious goals and will be investing in our big priorities this year. The reality is that to create the capacity for this investment, we have to make tough choices.” — Sundar Pichai, Google CEO.
Despite the tech layoffs so far in 2024, analysts are saying that this will not be a repeat of last year, even as more job cuts are expected in the coming months. In fact, AI-related roles might flourish, but at a smaller scale as tech companies chase efficiency for the new year.
Technology
Countries With the Highest Rates of Crypto Ownership
While the U.S. is a major market for cryptocurrencies, two countries surpass it in terms of their rates of crypto ownership.
Countries With the Highest Rates of Crypto Ownership
This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.
This graphic ranks the top 10 countries by their rate of cryptocurrency ownership, which is the percentage of the population that owns crypto. These figures come from crypto payment gateway, Triple-A, and are as of 2023.
Data and Highlights
The table below lists the rates of crypto ownership in the top 10 countries, as well as the number of people this amounts to.
Country | % of Population Who Own Crypto | # of Crypto Owners |
---|---|---|
🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates | 30.4 | 3M |
🇻🇳 Vietnam | 21.2 | 21M |
🇺🇸 U.S. | 15.6 | 53M |
🇮🇷 Iran | 13.5 | 12M |
🇵🇭 Philippines | 13.4 | 16M |
🇧🇷 Brazil | 12 | 26M |
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia | 11.4 | 4M |
🇸🇬 Singapore | 11.1 | 665K |
🇺🇦 Ukraine | 10.6 | 4M |
🇻🇪 Venezuela | 10.3 | 3M |
Note that if we were to rank countries based on their actual number of crypto owners, India would rank first at 93 million people, China would rank second at 59 million people, and the U.S. would rank third at 52 million people.
The UAE Takes the Top Spot
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) boasts the highest rates of crypto ownership globally. The country’s government is considered to be very crypto friendly, as described in Henley & Partners’ Crypto Wealth Report 2023:
In the UAE, the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA-ADGM) was the first to provide rules and regulations regarding cryptocurrency purchasing and selling. The Emirates are generally very open to new technologies and have proposed zero taxes for crypto owners and businesses.
Vietnam leads Southeast Asia
According to the Crypto Council for Innovation, cryptocurrency holdings in Vietnam are also untaxed, making them an attractive asset.
Another reason for Vietnam’s high rates of ownership could be its large unbanked population (people without access to financial services). Cryptocurrencies may provide an alternative means of accessing these services without relying on traditional banks.
Learn More About Crypto From Visual Capitalist
If you enjoyed this post, be sure to check out The World’s Largest Corporate Holders of Bitcoin, which ranks the top 12 publicly traded companies by their Bitcoin holdings.
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