After layoff activity in the tech industry quieted down around the holidays, it’s come back with a vengeance in January. According to our Layoff Tracker, 80,076 job eliminations have been announced or completed since the beginning of the year. The total number of tech layoffs since we began tracking in late August is now 195,856.
This past week alone, substantial layoffs were announced by Ericsson (5,000), Intel (6,000), and Microsoft (5,000). The biggest job loss by far is the 34,000 employees of Circuit City, which announced it is going out of business last week.
Among startups, layoffs hit Digg, Federated Media, and O”Reilly Media. Even Google was not immune, with 100 internal recruiters losing their jobs, many more contractors, and rumors swirling that more cuts may be on the way.
If you know of any layoffs at a tech company, please submit a tip with the name of the company and number of layoffs. If it’s been covered, also send a link to the blog post or news article. (For who is hiring, check out our job board).
Below is the list of January layoffs from our tracker.
| Company | Date | Location | # | % | Source |
| Digg | January 22, 2009 | San Francisco, CA | 7 | 10% | Cnet |
| Microsoft | January 22, 2009 | Redmond, WA | 5,000 | 5% | TechCrunch |
| Ericsson | January 21, 2009 | Stockholm, Sweden | 5,000 | 6% | Cnet |
| Bose | January 21, 2009 | Framingham, MA | 1,000 | 10% | Boston Globe |
| Intel | January 21, 2009 | 6,000 | Network World | ||
| Clear Channel Radio | January 20, 2009 | 1,850 | 9% | paidContent | |
| Warner Brothers | January 20, 2009 | Hollywood | 800 | Yahoo Finance | |
| SEGA | January 20, 2009 | San Francisco, CA | 30 | IGN | |
| Circuit City | January 17, 2009 | USA | 34,000 | 100% | Circuit City website |
| Federated Media | January 16, 2009 | 7 | Company Blog | ||
| AMD | January 16, 2009 | 1,100 | 9% | Washington Post | |
| Autodesk | January 15, 2009 | Worldwide | 750 | 10% | Reuters |
| Oversee.net | January 15, 2009 | Los Angeles | 40 | 18% | DomainName Wire |
| O’Reilly Media | January 15, 2009 | Sebastopol | 30 | 14% | Press Democrat |
| NEC | January 15, 2009 | Australia | 200 | Daily Telegraph | |
| January 14, 2009 | 100 | 1% | Official Google Blog | ||
| Varolii | January 14, 2009 | Seattle | 8% | TechFlash | |
| Oracle | January 14, 2009 | United State | 500 | 1% | MSN Money |
| Plantronics | January 14, 2009 | Santa Cruz | 900 | 18% | San Jose Mercury News |
| Motorola | January 14, 2009 | 4,000 | Wall Street Journal | ||
| WatchGuard | January 13, 2009 | Seattle | 55 | 9% | TechFlash |
| TBD Networks | January 13, 2009 | San Jose | 5 | 50% | TechCrunch |
| Financial Times | January 12, 2009 | London, UK | 80 | Guardian | |
| Seagate | January 12, 2009 | US | 800 | 10% | AP |