Software program builders aged 22 to 25 noticed employment fall almost 20% from their late 2022 peak by July 2025, in keeping with Stanford Digital Financial system Lab analysis utilizing ADP payroll knowledge. That single cohort decline reframes the whole narrative round tech layoffs, which most observers describe as a broad correction throughout all engineering ranges.
The info factors compiled under cowl mixture tech layoff totals from Layoffs.fyi, company-level cuts at Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and Salesforce, seniority-level employment shifts from Stanford and Certainly Hiring Lab, AI-automation drivers cited by chief executives on the document, and the BLS Occupational Outlook projections for software program builders by means of 2034. Readers monitoring the broader workforce image also can evaluate our AI job loss knowledge for cross-occupation context.
Key Takeaways
- Stanford discovered early-career staff in AI-exposed jobs noticed a 13% relative employment decline since late 2022, with software program builders aged 22 to 25 falling almost 20% from peak.
- Microsoft lower roughly 6,000 jobs in Could 2025 and one other 9,000 in July 2025, totaling over 15,000 throughout the yr.
- Amazon introduced 14,000 company function eliminations in late October 2025, recording an estimated $1.8 billion in severance prices.
- Salesforce lowered assist headcount from 9,000 to about 5,000, and CEO Marc Benioff mentioned the corporate employed no new engineers in fiscal yr 2026.
- Certainly Hiring Lab reported software program improvement job postings down 36.4% versus February 2020 and down 6.7% yr over yr as of October 2025.
- Staff with a number of AI abilities earn a wage premium estimated close to 43% above non-AI counterparts, in keeping with trade pay research cited by Acceler8 Expertise.
- BLS tasks software program developer, QA analyst, and tester employment to develop 15% from 2024 to 2034, with about 129,200 annual openings.
Editor’s Alternative
- Layoffs.fyi tracked over 152,000 tech layoffs throughout 551 firms in 2024.
- The 2025 whole reached 122,549 layoffs throughout 257 firms, roughly 20% under the 2024 determine.
- BLS Could 2024 OEWS knowledge reveals a software program developer median annual wage of $133,080, with the highest 10% incomes greater than $211,450.
- Software program builders, QA analysts, and testers held about 1.7 million jobs in 2024, per the BLS.
- Meta lower about 3,600 jobs in February 2025, framed as a performance-based discount concentrating on roughly 5% of workers.
- Pc programmer employment is projected to say no 6% from 2024 to 2034, at the same time as software program developer roles develop 15%.
Latest Developments
- April 2026: Meta introduced plans to chop roughly 10% of workers whereas pouring billions into AI funding, per CNN reporting.
- April 2026: CNBC reported that mixed Meta and Microsoft job cuts approaching 20,000 raised considerations of an AI-driven labor disaster.
- November 2025: Amazon CEO Andy Jassy defended the 14,000 company cuts as culture-driven, not AI-driven, in an earnings name assertion.
- October 2025: Certainly Hiring Lab reported software program improvement postings down 6.7% yr over yr, marking persistent weak point.
- September 2025: Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff confirmed 4,000 buyer assist roles lower as Agentforce AI took over routine conversations.
- July 2025: Microsoft introduced roughly 9,000 layoffs, equal to about 4% of its world workforce.
Combination Tech Layoff Totals
- Layoffs.fyi recorded over 152,000 tech staff laid off throughout 551 firms in 2024.
- The 2025 determine tracked roughly 122,549 affected staff throughout 257 firms, a year-over-year discount of about 20%.
- The 2023 peak reached 429,608 whole tech layoffs, greater than triple the 2025 quantity.
- Throughout the three-year window, the combination whole exceeds 700,000 tech sector job losses.
- Layoff tracker web site TrueUp logged comparable 2025 totals near 123,000 affected staff.
- Q1 2025 alone accounted for 22,692 tech staff laid off throughout 81 firms.
- The truth that 2025 cuts span fewer firms, 257 versus 551, alerts focus amongst bigger employers.
- Trade analysts at Crunchbase Information noticed that 2024 and 2025 mixed remained effectively under the 2022 to 2023 wave that produced over 600,000 cuts.
| 12 months | Tech Layoffs (Layoffs.fyi) | Corporations Affected | Notes |
| 2023 | 429,608 | 1,193 | Peak yr, post-ZIRP correction |
| 2024 | 152,000+ | 551 | 65% drop from 2023 |
| 2025 | 122,549 | 257 | 20% drop from 2024 |
| Q1 2025 | 22,692 | 81 | Main quarter |
Supply: Layoffs.fyi, TrueUp Layoffs Tracker, Crunchbase Information
Software program Engineer Cuts at Main Tech Corporations
- Microsoft lower roughly 6,000 jobs in Could 2025 with a give attention to software program engineering positions, per GeekWire and Reuters reporting on inner memos.
- The corporate adopted with one other 9,000 cuts in July 2025, equal to about 4% of its world workforce.
- Amazon eradicated 14,000 company roles in late October 2025, the biggest single Amazon lower for the reason that 27,000 trim in late 2022.
- Amazon disclosed estimated severance prices of $1.8 billion associated to the October spherical.
- Meta lower about 3,600 roles in February 2025, framed by CEO Mark Zuckerberg as a 5% performance-based discount.
- Meta returned in April 2026 with a deliberate 10% workers discount tied to AI funding, per CNN. Historic staffing context lives in our Meta worker depend protection.
- Salesforce lowered its assist division from 9,000 to about 5,000 headcount, a 44% discount in that perform.
- Google trimmed lots of of roles throughout Android, Pixel, and Chrome groups throughout 2025, smaller in scale than Microsoft or Amazon cuts. For mixture context, see our Google workforce knowledge.
| Firm | Spherical | Affected Roles | Date | Said Purpose |
| Microsoft | Q2 2025 | ~6,000 | Could 2025 | Effectivity, administration layers |
| Microsoft | Q3 2025 | ~9,000 | July 2025 | AI funding, ~4% world workforce |
| Amazon | Company | 14,000 | Oct 2025 | Tradition, agility (Jassy) |
| Meta | Efficiency | ~3,600 | Feb 2025 | Lowest performers, 5% lower |
| Meta | AI shift | ~10% workers | Apr 2026 | AI restructuring (CNN) |
| Salesforce | Help | ~4,000 | Sep 2025 | Agentforce AI displacement |
| Android/Pixel/Chrome | A whole lot | 2025 | Restructuring |
Supply: Microsoft GeekWire reporting, Amazon CEO assertion, Meta inner memo, Salesforce earnings name, CNN April 2026 report
Software program Engineer Layoffs by Seniority Stage
Stanford Digital Financial system Lab analysis discovered that early-career staff aged 22 to 25 in AI-exposed occupations skilled a 13% relative decline in employment since late 2022. Amongst 22-to-25-year-old software program builders particularly, employment fell almost 20% from its late 2022 peak by July 2025.
- Stanford ADP-payroll evaluation confirmed early-career staff in probably the most AI-exposed occupations noticed a 16% relative employment decline.
- Software program developer employment for ages 22 to 25 fell roughly 20% from its late 2022 peak by July 2025.
- For staff aged 30 and over within the highest AI-exposure classes, employment grew between 6% and 12% from late 2022 to Could 2025.
- Certainly Hiring Lab reported senior tech job titles down 19% versus 5 years earlier, whereas commonplace or junior titles fell 34% as of February 2025.
- Huge tech entry-level hiring dropped greater than 50% during the last three years, in keeping with Stanford’s accompanying employment-trend dataset.
- UK junior developer openings fell almost one-third versus 2022 ranges, per LinkedIn workforce stories.
- Throughout main EU markets, junior tech positions declined about 35% in 2024 in keeping with LinkedIn, Certainly, and Eures aggregated knowledge.
| Cohort | Employment Change Since Late 2022 | Supply | Be aware |
| US software program builders, age 22 to 25 | -20% (peak to July 2025) | Stanford / ADP | Most AI-exposed cohort |
| Early-career, AI-exposed roles (all) | -13% relative | Stanford | Throughout occupations |
| Most AI-exposed, age 22 to 25 | -16% relative | Stanford | Tightest cluster |
| Staff age 30+, high-exposure roles | +6% to +12% | Stanford / ADP | Counter-trend |
| US tech postings, senior titles | -19% (5-year) | Certainly Hiring Lab | Feb 2025 |
| US tech postings, junior titles | -34% (5-year) | Certainly Hiring Lab | Feb 2025 |
Supply: Stanford Digital Financial system Lab “Canaries within the Coal Mine” working paper, Certainly Hiring Lab February 2025 report
AI Automation as a Driver of Software program Engineer Cuts
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in early 2025 that “perhaps 20-30% of the code” in some Microsoft coding tasks is now generated by AI, a public acknowledgment that got here months earlier than the corporate’s Could 2025 software-engineering-focused layoff spherical. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, in a September 2, 2025, CNBC interview confirming the assist division cuts, mentioned immediately that “I want much less heads.”
- Microsoft’s Could 2025 spherical centered on software program engineering positions, per GeekWire reporting on inner memos.
- Nadella’s 20% to 30% AI-generated code declare covers choose coding tasks, not the corporate’s complete codebase.
- Salesforce employed zero new engineers in fiscal yr 2026, with Benioff citing AI-powered coding instruments as the explanation.
- Salesforce’s Agentforce product handles roughly 50% of all buyer conversations, with the opposite half routed to people.
- Salesforce reported a support-cost discount of about 17% since deploying agentic AI in customer support.
- The 4 roles most affected throughout AI restructuring rounds, per trade analyst rollups: software program engineers and builders, QA engineers, product managers, and challenge managers.
- Amazon’s October 2025 announcement linked the cuts explicitly to “effectivity features” from synthetic intelligence in a separate Galetti memo, at the same time as Jassy publicly framed them as cultural.
| Driver | Proof | Firm | Magnitude |
| AI code era | “20-30% of code” written by software program | Microsoft | 20% to 30% |
| Agentic AI for assist | Headcount lower from 9,000 to five,000 | Salesforce | -44% in division |
| AI hiring freeze | Zero new engineers employed in FY2026 | Salesforce | 0 hires |
| AI effectivity in company roles | 14,000 company eliminations | Amazon | 5% white-collar |
| Code evaluate and QA automation | QA engineers in top-4 lower roles | Trade-wide | Prime-4 lower class |
Supply: CNBC Salesforce interview, GeekWire Microsoft reporting, Amazon company statements
By the numbers: Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff confirmed in a 2025 CNBC interview that the corporate’s assist headcount fell from 9,000 to about 5,000 as AI-powered instruments dealt with routine conversations, and Salesforce employed zero new engineers in fiscal yr 2026. The shift represents the clearest CEO-level admission of AI substitution for engineering roles so far.
Software program Developer Job Postings and Hiring Decline
Certainly Hiring Lab’s knowledge feed for software program improvement postings confirmed openings down 36.4% versus the February 1, 2020, pre-pandemic baseline as of October 10, 2025. The identical sequence posted a 6.7% year-over-year decline, marking software program improvement as one of many hardest-hit occupational classes on the platform.
- Software program improvement postings remained 33% under February 2020 ranges by means of Q3 2025, per Certainly Hiring Lab knowledge.
- 12 months-over-year decline of 6.7% as of October 10, 2025, outpaced most different occupational segments tracked by the platform.
- The software-engineering job-openings index hit a five-year low throughout 2025, in keeping with The Pragmatic Engineer’s evaluation of FRED-published Certainly knowledge.
- Earlier in 2025, software program improvement postings had been down 9.5% within the yr to January 17, 2025, earlier than easing barely by means of the summer season.
- Junior or commonplace tech titles in February 2025 sat 34% under five-year-prior ranges.
- Senior tech titles in the identical interval had been down a relatively shallower 19%.
- Expertise necessities have tightened throughout remaining postings, per Certainly Hiring Lab’s July 2025 evaluation.
BLS Software program Developer Employment Outlook
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook stories that software program builders, high quality assurance analysts, and testers held about 1.7 million jobs in 2024, with total employment within the mixed class projected to develop 15% from 2024 to 2034. For comparability, pc programmer roles, tracked individually, are projected to say no 6% over the identical window.
- BLS counted roughly 1.7 million software program developer, QA analyst, and tester jobs in 2024.
- The identical class is projected so as to add jobs at a 15% fee, a lot quicker than the typical for all occupations.
- About 129,200 annual openings are projected for the mixed class over the 2024 to 2034 decade.
- Pc programmer roles, a smaller and older classification, held about 121,200 jobs in 2024.
- Pc programmer employment is projected to fall 6% by 2034, even with about 5,500 annual openings.
- Software program high quality assurance analysts and testers alone accounted for about 201,700 jobs in 2024.
- The divergence between BLS-classified software program builders and pc programmers displays a shift in function combine towards higher-skill improvement work.
Software program Developer Wages and AI Specialist Premium
BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics knowledge for Could 2024 positioned the median annual wage at $133,080, with the underside 10% incomes underneath $79,850 and the highest 10% incomes above $211,450. AI-specialist roles command further premiums on prime of this baseline, with multi-skill AI engineers reaching the strongest pay differentials.
- Software program developer median annual wage stood at $133,080 as of Could 2024, per BLS OEWS.
- The underside 10% of software program builders earned lower than $79,850 yearly in Could 2024.
- The highest 10% earned greater than $211,450, a roughly 2.6x unfold between deciles.
- Software program QA analysts and testers had a median annual wage of $102,610 in Could 2024, per the identical OEWS dataset.
- AI engineer base salaries averaged about $206,000 in 2025, climbing roughly 7% in Q1 2026, per Acceler8 Expertise’s market-rates survey.
- Staff with AI abilities earned about 28% greater than their counterparts with out, with multi-AI-skill staff commanding nearer to 43% premiums.
- Meta’s 2025 H-1B visa filings confirmed software program engineer base pay between $124,000 and $450,000, with the best AI roles reaching $650,000 in base pay.
Key discovering: US Bureau of Labor Statistics Could 2024 OEWS knowledge positioned software program developer median annual wage at $133,080, with the highest 10% clearing $211,450. AI-specialist roles, per Acceler8 Expertise’s 2025 survey, common about $206,000 base, and multi-AI-skill staff see roughly 43% wage premiums over non-AI friends.
Stack Overflow Developer Survey: Employment Snapshot
The 2025 Stack Overflow Developer Survey collected responses from over 49,000 builders throughout 177 nations. In america, 74.8% of respondents reported full-time employment, with the rest cut up between freelancers, college students, retirees, the unemployed, and respondents who declined to reply.
- Stack Overflow’s 2025 survey reached greater than 49,000 skilled and pupil builders globally.
- The USA subset confirmed 74.8% of builders in full-time employment as of mid-2025.
- About 5.6% of US respondents recognized as full-time college students, with 10% reporting freelance work.
- The remaining 9.6% of US respondents fell into the unemployed, retired, or no-information classes mixed.
- Germany posted the best formal-employment fee among the many top-five nations at 76%.
- The UK adopted carefully at 75% formal-employment amongst surveyed builders.
- Throughout all surveyed nations, the typical employment fee hovered close to 70%, in line with prior-year survey waves. The identical survey additionally paperwork AI device adoption amongst builders, which we cowl in our shadow AI utilization statistics breakdown.
Causes Cited for Software program Engineer Layoffs
- Microsoft’s said rationale for 2025 cuts emphasised trimming administration layers and shifting capital towards AI infrastructure funding.
- Amazon CEO Andy Jassy framed the 14,000 company cuts as primarily about tradition and agility, telling traders they had been “probably not financially pushed, and never even AI-driven, not proper now at the very least.”
- Meta’s February 2025 spherical was formally performance-based, concentrating on roughly 5% of workers, although laid-off staff disputed the “low performer” label publicly.
- Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff explicitly cited AI labor substitution, stating “I want much less heads” as regards to Agentforce capabilities.
- Trade analysts at Crunchbase Information estimated about 25% of March 2026 cuts traced to AI and automation, with roughly 75% nonetheless attributable to price self-discipline and unit-level restructuring.
- The lagging impact of 2020 to 2022 over-hiring continues to drive non-AI cuts, significantly at companies that doubled engineering headcount through the pandemic-era cheap-capital window.
- Strategic capital reallocation, the place layoff financial savings fund AI compute and data-center buildout, seems in almost each Huge Tech earnings name from 2025; the identical shift pulls headcount into chip and infrastructure companies, as our Nvidia workforce knowledge reveals.
Software program Engineer Layoffs vs Different Tech Function Cuts
- Throughout the 122,549 whole 2025 tech layoffs, the biggest share of role-typed cuts hit non-technical features, together with HR, communications, and recruiting.
- Inside engineering-specific cuts, the 4 most-affected roles per analyst rollups are software program engineers and builders, QA engineers, product managers, and challenge managers.
- Salesforce’s headline 2025 spherical affected buyer assist, not engineering, leaving its core dev workforce intact at the same time as the corporate stopped hiring new engineers.
- Microsoft’s Could 2025 spherical skewed towards software program engineers, an exception to the broader 2025 sample of non-engineering cuts dominating.
- Recruiting and expertise features absorbed disproportionate cuts at a number of companies, reflecting the shift from growth-mode hiring to maintenance-mode workforce planning.
- UX designers and product managers tracked nearer to engineer lower charges than to recruiter or HR lower charges in 2025 layoff bulletins.
- Gross sales roles had been comparatively protected at Huge Tech companies in 2025, apart from the Salesforce assist reorg.
| Function Class | 2025 Layoff Share Sample | Notes |
| Software program engineers / builders | Excessive publicity in choose rounds | Microsoft Could 2025 emphasis |
| QA engineers / testers | Prime-4 AI restructuring class | A number of companies |
| Product managers | Prime-4 AI restructuring class | Cross-firm sample |
| Challenge managers | Prime-4 AI restructuring class | Cross-firm sample |
| Buyer assist | Largest single-function lower at Salesforce | Agentforce-driven |
| HR / recruiting | Disproportionate non-tech cuts | Throughout most companies |
| Gross sales | Comparatively protected | Exterior Salesforce reorg |
| UX / design | Mid-exposure | Tied to product-line wind-downs |
Supply: Crunchbase Information function evaluation, Fortune protection of company-level rounds, particular person firm memos
Continuously Requested Questions (FAQs)
Layoffs.fyi tracked about 122,549 whole tech layoffs in 2025 throughout 257 firms. Software program engineers represented a significant share, particularly in Microsoft’s Could 2025 spherical, however most 2025 cuts hit non-technical roles equivalent to HR, communications, recruiting, and buyer assist, per Crunchbase Information role-level evaluation.
AI is a partial driver, not the only real trigger. Analyst rollups cited by CNBC attribute about 25% of March 2026 cuts to AI and automation, with roughly 75% tracing to price self-discipline and unit restructuring. Microsoft, Salesforce, and Amazon have publicly tied parts of their 2025 cuts to AI productiveness features.
Microsoft lower over 15,000 roles throughout two 2025 rounds, with the Could spherical centered on software program engineering. Amazon eradicated 14,000 company positions, roughly 5% of its white-collar workforce. Meta introduced a 5% workforce discount affecting about 3,600 staff, with U.S. staff notified in February 2025. Salesforce lowered its assist division from 9,000 to about 5,000 relatively than chopping engineers immediately.
Junior software program engineers face considerably extra stress. Stanford analysis confirmed software program developer employment for ages 22 to 25 fell almost 20% from the late 2022 peak by July 2025, whereas staff aged 30 and over in the identical AI-exposed class noticed employment rise 6% to 12%. Certainly Hiring Lab discovered junior tech titles down 34% versus senior titles down 19%.
US Bureau of Labor Statistics tasks 15% employment development for software program builders, QA analysts, and testers from 2024 to 2034, with about 129,200 annual openings. Median pay sits at $133,080, with AI-skilled engineers commanding round 28% premiums and multi-AI-skill professionals close to 43% above baseline.
Conclusion
Software program builders aged 22 to 25 absorbed a roughly 20% employment decline from their late 2022 peak by mid-2025, whereas staff aged 30 and over in the identical AI-exposed class noticed employment develop 6% to 12%, per Stanford Digital Financial system Lab evaluation. That single asymmetry pulls the layoff narrative away from “basic engineering collapse” towards a tighter story: cuts concentrated on the junior degree and throughout administration layers, with mid-career and senior engineers holding floor and even gaining share the place AI specialization is concerned.
The businesses driving the headline numbers, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and Salesforce, every had their very own said causes, starting from “tradition” to efficiency administration to specific AI substitution. The info factors beneath these statements are constant: software program improvement job postings stay 36.4% under February 2020 ranges per Certainly Hiring Lab, and hiring has frozen at companies like Salesforce. In the meantime, the AI-skill premium has widened to 43% for engineers with a number of AI specialisations, per Acceler8 Expertise knowledge. Mid-career engineers with AI fluency profit most from the divergence, whereas early-career entrants face the steepest entry barrier in over a decade.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics nonetheless tasks 15% software program developer employment development by means of 2034. If the historic sample holds, the restoration will favor specialists, redeployers, and engineers who pair conventional software program craft with AI tooling fluency.