Telecom-IT Layoff Tracker 2023: Cisco, RingCentral, Microsoft, 8×8, Sophos, More

January saw tech companies announcing layoffs impacting thousands of workers as economic uncertainty continues with no light at the end of the tunnel.

Our layoff trackers are normally a biannual gallery, but in just one month nearly 20 companies doing business in the channel have announced layoffs. Salesforce, Amazon, Cisco, Microsoft and RingCentral are among companies that greeted the new year by pink-slipping workers. The cuts are in the hundreds, and in some cases, the thousands.

And the onslaught of tech layoffs continues into this month. Furthermore, some of the layoffs are occurring despite profitable quarters and strong outlooks. For example, IBM‘s latest quarterly earnings topped analysts’ estimates, driven by higher-than-expected growth in the company’s software and infrastructure segments. But it’s still cutting thousands of workers.

‘Startling’ Development in Terms of Tech Jobs

According to Janco and Associates, in a startling turn of events, over 100,000 unfilled jobs for IT professionals have been eliminated.

Janco’s Victor Janulaitis

“The drop was unexpected,” said Janco CEO Victor Janulaitis. “The initial reports of positions eliminated were that they were focused on administrative and non-technical individuals. Reviewing the data, we now see that CIOs and hiring managers not only eliminated those non-technical positions, but have also started putting the break on IT projects.”

Most of the cutbacks were in production and IT operations, he said. Developers were not as hard hit.

“In conversations with a number of IT consulting firms, we are seeing a significant impact,” Janulaitis said. “A number of new initiatives have been put on hold and consultants are saying they are being asked to justify any additional extensions.”

See our up-to-date layoff tracker above for the many job cuts already this year.