The era of tech layoffs is not yet past, but it is losing some of its intensity and changing into a unique trend.
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It isn’t surprising to see Microsoft cutting staff yet again, in addition to the roughly 10,000 workers it laid off earlier this year. The tech giant is slashing its sales headcount, which is usually one of the areas that technology companies tend to pare down when budgets are reduced. Recruiting, marketing, and client-facing roles are other areas commonly affected when tech shops decide to trim costs.
The recent layoffs at Crunchbase are a good example of this. In a spreadsheet that the business data platform released in conjunction with its recent staffing cuts, you can clearly see the areas where the startup felt it could afford to scale back: sales roles of varying seniority, customer success staff, marketing and recruiting. Heck, even Crunchbase News was hit. (Note: I helped build that team while I worked at Crunchbase and am a shareholder in the company from my time of employment.)
But there is change afoot in the realm of tech layoffs.
If you study the Layoffs.fyi database of tech staff cuts, you can spot an interesting trend budding. The number of tech workers asked to leave since we saw layoffs peak in January 2023 has come down steadily:
Data visualization by Miranda Halpern, created with Flourish
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