AI Hiring Shifts as Tech Firms Cut 165,925 Jobs

U.S. technology companies announced 165,925 job cuts in the first nine months of 2026, even as employers outside tech compete for software engineers with artificial-intelligence skills. The figures expose a corporate shuffle: firms cut jobs in one corner of the economy while paying premiums to recruit workers elsewhere.

Who Pays for the Shift

Healthcare and life sciences firms pay software engineers up to 17% more than technology companies, according to recruiter Randstad’s research. Banks offer a 13% premium. Those higher offers show where employers direct money as they pursue AI capabilities; the layoffs show workers facing the other side of those decisions.

Randstad’s findings draw on a survey of 1,100 business and technology decision-makers across 11 countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany and Japan. The research also examined 20 million job postings and roughly 100 million candidate profiles. These large-scale measures track corporate demand and recruitment. The account offers no testimony from workers affected by layoffs.

Job postings requiring AI capabilities grew fivefold, the research found. Fifty-five percent of surveyed non-tech organizations said they were recruiting workers after technology-sector layoffs. Companies expanding their search for AI talent can draw from the workforce technology firms have released; the report gives no further detail about what those workers receive beyond the pay premiums.

Cuts at the Top, Consequences Below

Data that Challenger, Gray & Christmas published on October 1 showed U.S. technology companies announced 165,925 job cuts in the first nine months of 2026, a 54% increase from the same period in 2025. The numbers measure announcements, not a worker-led decision about which jobs should disappear.

Microsoft recently said it was offering voluntary buyouts to 60,000 employees. Oracle said in June that its workforce had shrunk by 21,000. Meta began layoffs in May affecting 10% of its workforce, or around 8,000 jobs. In February, Jack Dorsey's payment company Block laid off more than 4,000 employees, nearly half its workforce. Each figure marks a corporate decision affecting people whose livelihoods depend on those employers.

Companies around the world increasingly cite artificial intelligence when cutting jobs, adding to workers’ anxiety about losing their livelihoods to machines. Microsoft, Barclays Bank and supermarket chain Kroger were among companies that announced AI-related workforce reductions in 2026. Those cuts included jobs considered redundant and positions eliminated to free money for developing and deploying the technology. The account identifies the corporate rationale; it doesn't describe any mutual-aid effort, direct action or organized worker response.

The Sales Pitch

The report also raises a question about what workers should consider if a company that made AI-related cuts later wants them back. The available text offers no further advice. It names no legislative solution, election proposal, nonprofit intervention or worker-led alternative.

Sander van 't Noordende told CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe" on Thursday: "These businesses see massive potential in AI, realizing business cases that they were not able to realize before." He said, "We've seen a massive investment wave in the technology sector ... now that wave is shifting towards businesses looking to find the benefits of AI." Executives and recruiters can describe where investment is moving. The reported figures show who faces the cuts along the way.