Hiring Data on Entry-Level Tech Watch

2026 Tech Layoffs Have Passed All of 2025, But the Trackers Disagree on How Many

Sat, 03 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Tech layoffs in 2026 have already passed the full-year total for 2025, but how far past depends on who is counting. If you are trying to understand the job market, it helps to know why the headline numbers disagree.

Four trackers, four totals

Tracker	2026 count	Coverage
Layoffs.fyi	128,536 employees at 299 companies	Through Sept 10
Challenger, Gray & Christmas	155,126 US tech job cuts	Through August; up 52% year over year
TrueUp	190,077 people across 623 layoffs	Running total at time of writing
SkillSyncer	225,122 workers across 519 events	As of late September

For comparison, Layoffs.fyi counted 122,606 tech layoffs for all of 2025, so its 2026 total had already passed that by September, as Second Talent’s summary notes.

CS Graduate Unemployment Is Around 7.1%, an AP Analysis Finds: What It Means for the Class of 2026

Sat, 03 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A new Associated Press analysis puts the jobless rate for recent computer science and computer engineering graduates at around 7.1%, according to the AP report as republished by Japan Today. For a degree once treated as a safe bet, that is a notable number.

What is behind it

The AP points to several causes at once. Part of it reflects the huge number of students who enrolled during the coding boom, so more graduates are competing for roughly the same pool of openings. At the same time, large employers such as Microsoft, Meta and Google are using AI for a bigger share of code writing, and Amazon and others are cutting staff while spending on AI accelerates.

IBM Plans to Triple US Entry-Level Hiring in 2026, With Different Job Descriptions

Sat, 03 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The usual story is that AI is wiping out entry-level tech jobs. IBM is making the opposite bet, and the details of how it is doing so are worth reading.

What IBM said

TechCrunch reported, citing Bloomberg, that IBM plans to triple entry-level hiring in the US in 2026. An IBM executive, LaMoreaux, acknowledged these are the same jobs people are told AI can do. IBM did not say how many people it would hire.