5 Countries Hit Hardest By AI-Driven Tech Layoffs In 2026, Led By The United States As Amazon Leads Cuts

Global technology layoffs have surpassed 30,000 just weeks into 2026, according to industry tracking data, with a small handful of countries absorbing the overwhelming majority of the losses as companies restructure their workforces around artificial intelligence.

The figures come from a report by financial research platform RationalFX, which compiled data from sources including TrueUp, TechCrunch, WARN Act filings and other industry trackers. According to the analysis, more than 30,700 layoffs were recorded globally in just over a month at the start of the year, a pace that, if sustained, would push global technology job losses past last year’s total.

Here are the five countries that have absorbed the largest share of those job losses so far.

1. United States. The U.S. accounts for the overwhelming majority of global tech layoffs recorded this year, with approximately 24,600 job cuts, representing just over four-fifths of the worldwide total. Amazon has served as the single largest contributor to the U.S. total, having announced plans in January to eliminate approximately 16,000 corporate positions, one of the largest workforce reductions in the company’s history. That cut followed a separate round of 14,000 job losses the company announced in October 2025. Amazon management has framed the reductions as an effort to streamline decision-making, reduce organizational layers and redirect resources toward artificial intelligence investment, even as the company reported $716.9 billion in revenue last year and is preparing capital expenditures that could approach $200 billion this year, much of it directed toward cloud computing and AI infrastructure. Seattle, home to Amazon’s headquarters, leads all cities worldwide in total layoffs, with more than 16,500 workers affected, while San Francisco and Menlo Park, California, follow as the next most heavily affected tech hubs.
2. Sweden. Sweden ranks second globally with roughly 1,900 recorded job cuts, driven primarily by layoffs at telecommunications equipment manufacturer Ericsson. The company has been reducing staff as part of an effort to strengthen its competitive position amid a slower global market for 5G network equipment, according to the report.
3. Netherlands. The Netherlands follows closely with about 1,700 layoffs, reflecting job cuts at semiconductor equipment maker ASML. Notably, ASML’s restructuring of management and technical roles has come even as the company continues reporting strong demand and record sales, illustrating a broader pattern in which companies are cutting positions not necessarily because of weak financial performance, but as part of a deliberate shift toward leaner organizational structures built around automation and AI-driven productivity gains.
4. India. India has recorded approximately 920 layoffs so far this year, leading the broader Asian region in recorded technology job losses, according to the report.
5. Israel. Israel rounds out the top five with roughly 774 recorded layoffs. Additional, smaller reductions have also been reported in the Czech Republic, Germany, Argentina, France and the British Virgin Islands, indicating that workforce contraction tied to the current wave of restructuring is affecting both major global economies and smaller financial or technology hubs alike.

Beyond the country-level breakdown, the report noted that several major technology markets, including Japan, Indonesia and China, have not reported confirmed layoffs so far this year, though the report cautioned that disclosure standards vary significantly by country and could affect how completely the true scale of job losses in those markets is being captured.

Analysts tracking the layoffs said the speed and geographic distribution of the cuts point to a structural shift in how technology companies operate, rather than a temporary slowdown tied to broader economic cycles. Nearly 1 million technology jobs have been eliminated globally since 2021, following the industry’s post-pandemic correction, when many companies that had expanded aggressively during the pandemic began reassessing costs, staffing levels and organizational structures.

The report also found that this year’s layoffs have not been confined to entry-level or support positions. Recent job reductions have increasingly included senior roles and specialized technical positions, suggesting that restructuring tied to automation and AI adoption is reaching deeper into corporate hierarchies than in previous rounds of tech-sector layoffs. Employers are increasingly prioritizing candidates with AI-specific expertise while reducing roles tied to routine, repeatable corporate processes, according to the analysis.

Beyond Amazon, several other major companies have contributed to this year’s layoff totals. Meta Platforms has cut more than 1,000 roles from its Reality Labs division, the unit focused on virtual and augmented reality technologies, as the company redirects resources toward artificial intelligence and its core platform products. Payments company Block has announced plans to eliminate roughly 1,100 positions as part of a broader restructuring effort aimed at streamlining operations and integrating services. Software companies Autodesk and Salesforce have each disclosed layoffs of approximately 1,000 employees as they reorganize their respective teams around cloud computing and enterprise platform priorities.

Looking ahead, RationalFX’s analysis projects that if layoffs continue at the current pace observed early in the year, global technology job losses could reach approximately 273,000 by the end of 2026, surpassing the roughly 245,000 job losses recorded across the technology sector the previous year. Researchers involved in the analysis attributed the trend to a longer-term shift toward leaner corporate structures, tighter cost controls, and technology-driven productivity improvements rather than a short-term response to broader economic weakness.

Industry experts cited in the report expect hiring demand to remain highly uneven across different types of roles going forward. Positions requiring advanced technical skills, data expertise and direct experience working with artificial intelligence systems are expected to continue expanding, even as administrative and operational roles face sustained pressure from continued automation. Whether job creation in emerging technology fields, including AI development itself, can meaningfully offset the ongoing wave of workforce reductions elsewhere in the industry remains an open question that analysts say will likely become clearer over the coming months as more companies finalize their restructuring plans for the remainder of 2026.