Tech layoffs August 2026 update: Apple, TikTok, LinkedIn, Netflix join the list of companies slashing jobs
August is quickly coming to a close, but it appears to be ending the way it began: with mass layoffs at some of the biggest tech companies on the planet.
Here’s the latest roundup of recent job cuts from some of the most prominent tech players in the industry.
Apple slashes positions on Siri and Vision Pro teams
Of all the tech layoffs this month so far, the recent job cuts at Apple seem to have grabbed the most headlines.
This is for a few reasons. First, Apple rarely announces mass layoffs—so any round of job cuts from the iPhone maker tends to be widely reported. Second, the cuts affect Apple’s Siri and Vision Pro teams, two product areas in which the company has seen significant struggles.
Apple’s job cuts were first reported by AppleInsider last week, which said the company was laying off more than 60 employees from its Vision Pro team.
The Apple Vision Pro, when it was released in 2025, was Apple’s first major new product launch in nearly a decade. But the augmented reality headset was a flop, failing to catch on with customers.
But the Vision Pro team is not the only one affected by the job cuts. On Friday, Bloomberg reported (via 9to5Mac) that Apple was also laying off people in its Siri and gaming divisions.
In total, around 200 employees are being let go.
An Apple spokesperson confirmed the cuts, stating, “While we will create new roles as part of this change, it will also impact a limited number of existing roles. We are grateful to these team members for their contributions, and we are committed to supporting them throughout their transition, including opportunities to apply for other roles at Apple.”
TikTok initiates second round of August layoffs
Also last week, GeekWire reported that TikTok was laying off 75 workers in the Seattle area. This follows TikTok’s previous layoffs earlier in August, in which the company cut 250 jobs.
Those early-August layoffs came as a result of the company shuttering its Nashville office that primarily dealt with content moderation. However, its late-August layoffs focus on teams responsible for a different area: e-commerce.
In a letter TikTok sent to the Washington Employment Security Department Grants Management Office, the company said the cuts were “necessary given recent restructures to the Company’s operations.”
TikTok also said that the affected employees would be given the opportunity to apply for other positions at the company.
According to TikTok’s letter, roles impacted include data scientists, software engineers, and more.
Netflix shuts two of its games studios
While streaming giant Netflix is best known for its video services, it also has invested heavily in games-on-demand.
However, over the past several years, Netflix has shuttered several of the studios responsible for some of those games, and earlier this month, Netflix announced two more games studios closures.
As reported by GameFile, Netflix is closing down Los Angeles-based Night School Studio and Helsinki-based Moonloot. Night School Studio was responsible for the popular Oxenfree series.
Netflix confirmed the upcoming closure of the studios, without revealing just how many people would lose their jobs. According to GameFile, a company spokesperson told the publication, “We see an opportunity to be more focused in our execution, so we are making organizational changes to the business to match those priorities.”
LinkedIn cuts 50 R&D jobs
LinkedIn may be known as the go-to site to find a job, but the professional social media network and job listing board is cutting its own employees. According to CTech, LinkedIn has decided to shutter its research and development operations in Israel.
LinkedIn’s R&D center was established in the country in 2022, after the Microsoft-owned entity acquired the analytics startup Oribi for between $80 million and $90 million. Details on why LinkedIn is shutting down its R&D center now are not known, but the center reportedly had about 50 employees.
Fast Company has reached out to LinkedIn for comment.
More tech jobs have been lost in 2026 than in 2025
These recent layoffs have pushed the total tech job losses for 2026 to 127,180 across 281 companies, according to data compiled by layoff tracker Layoffs.fyi. The job-cuts figure is nearly 5,000 more than all of 2025’s tech job cuts combined—and August isn’t even over yet.
However, while the ongoing tally for 2026 currently surpasses all of 2025, tech layoffs this year are still far behind their 2023 peak, when 265,660 tech employees at 1,194 tech companies lost their jobs.