Job Cuts Resurface at Salesforce and Oracle
The job market faces another wave of reductions, with Salesforce and Oracle poised to affect hundreds of employees in the United States. Recent disclosures to state regulators have revealed plans to eliminate numerous positions, contributing to a significant job loss tally for 2025.
Oracle has confirmed the termination of over 250 roles across locations in Redwood City, Pleasanton, and Santa Clara. In addition, 101 employees in Seattle will also be departing. Salesforce mirrors this trend, planning to eliminate upwards of 260 positions in San Francisco and nearly 100 in the Seattle area, effective 3 November.
The impetus behind these layoffs is largely ascribed to restructuring and increased efficiency. Specifically for Salesforce, the cuts correlate closely with its AI initiative, Agentforce. Launched last year, this platform has streamlined customer support operations, managing a substantial volume of inquiries.
Salesforce states that as automation addresses millions of cases, there is a reduced necessity for engineers within that division. A spokesperson elaborated, “Since the introduction of help.agentforce.com at the start of the year, we’ve witnessed a decline in support cases, eliminating the need to backfill support engineer roles.
We have successfully repositioned hundreds of employees into diverse sectors such as professional services, sales, and customer success.”
Although the scale of these layoffs might not seem monumental when juxtaposed with the extensive downsizing witnessed in late 2022, the overarching trend is troubling. According to the industry monitoring platform Layoffs. fyi, over 83,000 technology professionals have been laid off so far in 2025 across 194 firms, with only three-quarters of the year elapsed.
Each organization justifies its layoffs as a necessary realignment or efficiency initiative, yet the common thread remains the rapid encroachment of automation propelled by artificial intelligence.
Microsoft’s Aggressive Restructuring Efforts
No entity has approached headcount reductions with as much fervor as Microsoft this year. The tech behemoth, headquartered in Redmond, has dismissed more than 15,000 personnel since May, spanning product, engineering, sales, and gaming divisions. This follows an earlier cut of over 10,000 roles in 2023.
Notably, these job reductions occurred despite commendable revenue growth, attributed to a strategic pivot. Microsoft has committed upwards of $80 billion to AI infrastructure and continues to plan extensive investments while concurrently minimizing costs in other areas.
Tata Consultancy Services Enacts Layoffs
While 2023’s layoffs predominantly reverberated through Silicon Valley, the repercussions have now reached the Indian IT sector, previously thought to be insulated. In July, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) announced plans to cut approximately 12,000 roles, representing around 2% of its workforce.
The organization asserts it seeks to evolve into a “future-ready organization,” emphasizing investments in AI, next-generation infrastructure, and untapped markets. Nonetheless, the company’s controversial “bench policy” restricts the duration an employee may remain unassigned to projects.
Restructuring Moves at Intel, Meta, and Google
Intel is amidst one of the year’s most substantial workforce reductions, aiming to slash its global employee count by as many as 25,000 by the close of 2025.
Meta, which is heavily investing in AI, is also downsizing, having let go of around 3,600 employees this year. Many of those affected were categorized as “low performers.” CEO Mark Zuckerberg has stated his intention to elevate output standards and achieve “non-regrettable attrition.”
Google has likewise continued its trend of layoffs, conducting multiple rounds of terminations along with voluntary exit programs affecting teams across Search, Ads, Engineering, and Marketing, as the company pivots towards AI-centric initiatives.
Amazon, while relatively subdued, has not escaped unscathed. The company has eliminated hundreds of positions within its AWS cloud segment and other departments. CEO Andy Jassy has cautioned that generative AI advancements could lead to “fewer individuals handling some of the tasks currently performed.”
In addition to these tech giants, Scale AI has reduced its workforce by 200 full-time employees and 500 contractors in July, while cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike has cut about 500 positions to streamline operations.
Source link: Indiatoday.in.
