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<\/p>\nLaid-off tech worker Joseph Tinner has spent almost a year hunting for a job. It has been a depressing crash course on the sea change in Silicon Valley.<\/p>\n
The former product instructor from the San Francisco Bay Area has ridden the tech wave throughout his career, easily jumping from Verizon to Fitbit to Workday. Since losing his job early last year, the 59-year-old has hit a wall. <\/p>\n
He applied for hundreds of roles \u2014 sometimes going through multiple rounds of consideration \u2014 only to get rejected again and again. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a roller coaster,\u201d he said. \u201cIt just takes a lot of resilience, honestly, to be in this job market.\u201d<\/p>\n
He isn\u2019t alone. <\/p>\n
Tech companies that aggressively hired during the COVID-19 pandemic have been slashing tens of thousands of jobs. For workers like Tinner, it has been a rough realization that the Silicon Valley shakeout is stretching into another year. <\/p>\n
Just last week, Block \u2014 the financial tech company that owns payment services Square, Cash App and Afterpay \u2014 said it is laying off 4,000 people, or half of its workforce. <\/p>\n
Many other tech companies outside the hot artificial intelligence sector are slashing staff. Block blamed AI, saying the powerful technology means it no longer needs as many people. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe intelligence tools we\u2019re creating and using, paired with smaller and flatter teams, are enabling a new way of working which fundamentally changes what it means to build and run a company,\u201d Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Block and a founder of Twitter, said in a post on X. <\/p>\n
U.S.-based tech employers announced more than 33,000 job cuts from January to February, up 51% compared with the same period last year, the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas said Thursday. <\/p>\n
Andy Challenger, workplace expert and chief revenue officer for the firm, said he used to be skeptical that companies could replace workers with AI, but he\u2019s starting to become convinced.<\/p>\n
\u201cArtificial intelligence has overtaken the attention of these companies in such a dramatic way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mass layoffs in the tech industry started in 2022, after a hiring surge during the pandemic, when demand for online services increased as people were stuck at home. <\/p>\n
But many of the world\u2019s most powerful tech companies have continued cutting, even as their profits have grown. They\u2019ve cited various reasons for layoffs, from strategic shifts and restructuring to pivoting to smaller teams and fewer managers. <\/p>\n
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An advertisement promoting an AI-powered company is seen downtown on Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025 in San Francisco, CA.<\/p>\n
(Manuel Orbegozo\/For The Times)<\/p>\n
Tech companies such as EBay, Meta, Google, Autodesk, Pinterest, Salesforce and others have been shrinking their workforces. Layoffs have also hit the media and entertainment companies, including Los Angeles video game developer Riot Games. <\/p>\n
On LinkedIn, laid-off workers who have been out of work \u2014 some for more than two years \u2014 have been asking for help finding a job. They\u2019ve been sharing stories about their financial and emotional struggles, including losing their confidence, homes and savings as they search for work.<\/p>\n
Tech workers who have seen their employers grow over the last decade have noticed a shift in corporate culture. Workers who have been laid off before said it has been tougher and taken longer to land a new job than in previous years.<\/p>\n
A longtime Salesforce employee, who was recently laid off and asked to remain anonymous, concerned that speaking to the media could affect their severance, said the sales software company used to be more focused on helping its employees. Salesforce broadcast this value by highlighting its \u201cohana,\u201d culture, using the Hawaiian word for family<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cI was just incredibly grateful every day to be able to wake up and make a positive change in the world,\u201d the worker said. \u201cI thought that the company was devoted to the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n But the tone at Salesforce shifted in 2023 as the company faced pressure to cut costs and increase profits. New leaders came in, and the focus changed.<\/p>\n \u201cThe company is trying to erase any semblance of the way that it used to be,\u201d the worker said.<\/p>\n Salesforce has said AI is helping it squeeze more profit from fewer people. <\/p>\n \u201cAI is doing 30% to 50% of the work at Salesforce now,\u201d the company\u2019s co-founder and Chief Executive Marc Benioff told Bloomberg.<\/p>\n Salesforce didn\u2019t respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce Inc., during a Bloomberg Television interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos,<\/p>\n (Bloomberg\/Bloomberg via Getty Images)<\/p>\n Although technology is changing the way people work, experts and even some AI executives think companies sometime use AI as an excuse to cut workers in what\u2019s referred to as \u201cAI washing.\u201d <\/p>\n Enrico Moretti, a professor of economics at UC Berkeley, said other factors besides AI are fueling layoffs. As a company grows larger and matures, it doesn\u2019t hire as much as before.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a shift in their position and the maturing of their product, and therefore the technologies and their employment needs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Roger Lee, an entrepreneur who created a website to track layoffs, Layoffs.fyi, in 2020, said in an email that tech companies are pouring billions of dollars into AI investments, and cutting headcount helps offset those costs.<\/p>\n When he started tracking layoffs six years ago, Lee wanted to create awareness around tech layoffs and help laid-off workers find their next job. He never anticipated the layoffs would continue today.<\/p>\n \u201cI do think 6 years of persistent layoffs have led many tech workers to re-evaluate the perceived \u2018safety\u2019 of tech jobs and their relationship with the industry overall,\u201d he said in an email.<\/p>\n According to Layoffs.fyi\u2019s latest count, there have been more than 35,000 layoffs in the tech sector worldwide so far this year. <\/p>\n![\"Marc](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1772846481_135_.jpeg\")
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