More than 305,000 employees in the U.S. lost their jobs in a torrent of major layoffs at U.S. companies throughout the year, according to Forbes’ layoff tracker, starting with a parade of cuts at tech giants in January, and persisting stubbornly throughout the summer and fall even as recession fears tapered off and as unemployment rates remain low.

KEY FACTS

The biggest round of layoffs according to Forbes’ tracker—which includes cuts of 100 or more—came at the end of July, when now-bankrupt trucking company Yellow Corporation slashed all 30,000 of its employees, according to the Teamsters, with union president Sean O’Brien claiming the company “has historically proven that it could not manage itself.”

After cutting 10,000 employees late last year, Amazon announced plans in January to cut another 8,000 in what CEO Andy Jassy called an “uncertain economy,” while in March, the tech giant cut 9,000 positions, and in November, it laid out plans to slash “several hundred” more employees in a cost-cutting initiative to “better align with [its] business priorities.”

Google parent company Alphabet cut roughly 12,000 jobs in January, which CEO Sundar Pichai referred to as “tough choices” to capture “the huge opportunity in front of us, including from the company’s investments in AI.

January also saw a major layoff at Microsoft affecting 10,000 employees (just under 5% of the Washington-based tech company’s 180,000 employees), with another 1,000 employees in sales and customer service reportedly losing their jobs in July.

Meta, which cut 10,000 employees in January, let go of another 6,000 in May, bringing its total layoffs since fall 2022 to 21,000—CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in March the company is in a “year of efficiency” that, in part, will “improve [its] financial performance in a difficult environment so we can execute our long term vision.”

Also in January, software company Salesforce announced plans to cut 7,900 employees (10% of the company’s workforce) amid a “challenging” economic environment, according to CEO Marc Benioff, though the San Francisco-based company hired another 3,300 employees in September.

In February, Dell Technologies, the owner of PC-maker Dell, cut more than 6,600, which it attributed to “uncertain” market conditions, Bloomberg reported, while software company IBM said it would cut roughly 3,900 employees (1.5% of its workforce).

In August, CVS Health cut 5,000 of its more than 300,000 employees, though the company told Forbes at the time those layoffs will not affect “customer-facing” positions at its pharmacy and clinic locations.

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