Battered by years of mass layoffs, California tech workers were hoping the job market would rebound this year. But things are getting worse.
Now, many are redrawing their career paths.
Artificial intelligence has triggered fierce competition for top talent and is also fueling tens of thousands of layoffs this year. The class divide is widening in Silicon Valley as a tiny group of employees are landing unprecedented packages for their AI skills, while many others struggle to find work.
The have-nots are doing everything that used to guarantee great jobs — refreshing resumes, optimizing LinkedIn profiles and doing interviews — but companies are much more picky these days. The tech jobless are rethinking their lives. Some are taking pay cuts, others are leaving tech. Some are going back to study or launch startups. Some have retired.
Basem Istanbouli, a laid-off tech worker, leads a hike with (un)PTO.
Basem Istanbouli was laid off by Google more than a year ago but hasn’t landed a new job in the San Francisco Bay Area despite a strong resume with years of experience as an account manager at the search giant.
“The job search has been brutal,” he said. “Even though I get a lot of interviews and I make it to final rounds very often, I’ve just not been in the position to receive an offer.”
To bolster his chances of finding a job and to socialize with others stuck in the same struggle, the 33-year-old created a community and hiking group called (un)PTO for people in career transition.
Since 2022, more than 815,500 tech workers have been laid off, according to Layoffs.fyi, a website that tracks job cuts. The tsunami of pink slips surged in 2023, when companies that had gone on hiring sprees during the COVID-19 pandemic began to cut back. From January to April, U.S. tech employers announced 85,411 job cuts this year, up 33% from the same period last year, according to global outplacement and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
Matt Tarchick, left, and Allen Lwin joins the UnPTO hike.
The Public Policy Institute of California estimates that the number of information jobs — which includes jobs in hard-hit Hollywood as well as tech — tumbled 17% between the middle of 2022 and this February. The San Francisco Bay Area has been hardest hit, the institute said in a recent report, with the number of jobs declining by 0.4%, compared with 7.5% growth over a similar time span before COVID-19 slammed into the U.S. economy.
Tech layoffs keep coming. This week, Meta Platforms is reportedly starting to notify the 8,000 employees it is laying off in its latest round. Coinbase, the largest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange, is cutting 700 workers. In April, Snap said it was laying off 1,000 workers, or roughly 16% of its staff.
Tech layoffs are also spilling over into other industries. Automaker General Motors laid off roughly 600 workers in its information technology department, and Walmart is reportedly laying off or relocating roughly 1,000 workers in its technology and products teams.
Recruiters say companies have become much more selective, requiring AI skills, combining different positions and interviewing more people for each job.
“You’re seeing elongated hiring cycles,” said Robert Lucido, senior director of strategic advisory at Magnit, a California company that helps tech giants and other businesses manage contractors, freelancers and other contingent workers. “There’s more opportunity to fill the need that they truly want.”
1. Hikers in small groups based on preferred hiking speed. 2. Leila Yasmin Saadat wears her Bernie socks when she joined the UnPTO hike. 3. Sunshine through trees on Quicksilver McAbee Loop on Monday, in San Jose.
Workers are going through multiple rounds of interviews, and employers can take up to six months to fill a full-time role. Meanwhile, the salaries offered to successful candidates have been dropping, he said.
Paul Flaharty, district president at staffing firm Robert Half in Los Angeles, said companies are laying off workers, but also creating new roles tied to AI initiatives.
“For individuals that are displaced, it’s really important that they find ways to upskill themselves so that they can make themselves as attractive as possible for these new jobs that are being created,” he said.
Kira Martins was already taking on more work in a small team at Snap — the parent company of disappearing messaging app Snapchat — when she was laid off in April. The company said the layoffs were to cut costs as it focuses on profitability, noting how employees are using AI to “reduce repetitive work, increase velocity, and better support our community, partners, and advertisers.”
Despite living through several rounds of job cuts at the Santa Monica company, losing her digital asset management job still came as a surprise.
“Some days you’re kind of nervous because you hear so much about the job market and so on,” she said. “But I think ‘I’m going to be fine.’”
Venkat Iyer (Cupertino), aged 65, left, and Leila Yasmin Saadat joined the UnPTO hike.
Martins, a 36-year-old Los Angeles resident, views AI as a tool and is optimistic about finding her next role. People still need to decide how to use AI and check the work it generates, she said.
“In tech, you want to be a first adopter, because if you don’t move quickly, it’s very easy to become irrelevant,” she said. “Everyone’s kind of hopping on the AI train.”
Martins plans to recuperate, enjoy an upcoming trip to India, read and spend time with her friends. She’s talked to recruiters, but will start applying to more jobs later in the year.
“I’m lucky in that I worked for a tech company. I managed to put some money in my savings,” she said. “I’m not really pressed to find work right away.”
Some laid-off workers are confronting how much of their identity is tied to work, sharing their journeys on social media.
Growing up in an immigrant family, Jason Zhang said he was practical about his career choice. His parents, he said, never graduated from college or made much money. He ended up pursuing what he thought would be a stable job as a software engineer, landing a coveted role at Google in 2022.
Hikers walk on the trail at Quicksilver McAbee Loop on Monday, May 18, 2026 in San Jose, CA.
“Google was always kind of like the dream for most college students,” Zhang said.
Then Zhang got laid off this year. While some laid-off workers on social media say losing their jobs was the best thing that happened to them, Zhang wondered if that is true for him. He decided to document his layoff journey on TikTok and Instagram. His video about getting laid off from Google went viral, and he has now amassed more than 54,000 followers on Instagram.
While some laid-off workers are trying to pivot to content creation, Zhang wants to stay in tech. The 25-year-old hopes to land a mid-level engineering role and plans to spend months preparing for a rigorous interview process.
For some, getting laid off can mean early retirement.
Bruce Bowers has spent more than 40 years in the tech industry, working for companies such as Xerox Corp., Sun Microsystems and most recently at Oracle.
This year, Bowers lost his job as a product manager, along with thousands of other workers, at the database management company. At 64 years old, the California resident was already close to retirement, so looking for a new job didn’t make sense.
He has started his retirement resting and helping out at his church.
“I am only beginning to discern what this next season of life will look like,” he wrote on LinkedIn. “I’m looking forward to a fruitful and joy-filled retirement.”
Hhikers gather and chat with one another at the trailhead.
Lloyd Lee-Lim, Berkeley, front, and others look on while Basem Istanbouli organizes the hiking groups.
As for Istanbouli, who’s still job hunting, he’s learned it’s not enough to just apply in this competitive market. Workers really need to network and leverage their connections to get seen by hiring managers and stand out. Getting rejected is tough, but he’s also become resilient and healthier, all while becoming a community leader and growing his social circle.
Communities like (un)PTO, which has roughly 600 people, aren’t just giving people a way to socialize through hiking and other activities, he said. Laid-off workers offer one another job tips, resources and access to their networks.
When a job seeker lands a role, they can then share their success stories and referrals with the community.
“They have their own networks that we can tap into, and eventually, hopefully, all of us will get jobs,” he said.