AI layoffs are real: Is your emergency fund ready?
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.As companies around the world accelerate automation and adopt artificial intelligence (AI) tools, layoffs have shifted from speculation to reality. Thousands of professionals who once considered their careers stable are now navigating sudden unemployment.The scale is significant.
Layoffs.fyi data shows that 97 technology companies eliminated over 81,000 roles globally in the first quarter of 2026 alone. In March, Oracle announced 30,000 job cuts worldwide, with a third of those roles based in India.
Amazon, Meta, and Salesforce have also announced reductions this year.Closer home, Tata Consultancy Services laid off 12,000 employees in fiscal 2026, while startups Livspace, Flipkart, and Zupee together cut around 1,700 jobs between January and March.Mint spoke to individuals who were recently laid off to understand how prepared they were and what that preparation meant when the news finally came.Behind these numbers lies a more personal crisis. A widely reported viral video on social media recently highlighted this through the story of a Noida-based IT professional, shared by a friend, who once earned ₹40 lakh annually and now rides for Rapido to meet a ₹95,000 monthly EMI on a ₹1.4 crore flat purchased in 2024.
Mint couldn’t independently verify the incident.A 35-year-old, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, lost his sales job at a startup two months ago, pointed to another challenge: “In India, leaving a company in around 1-1.5 years is still considered taboo,” he said, noting that he was laid off due to “organizational changes”. “No one looks at the kind of work you were doing—companies want to know if you were able to stick with an organization.”Originally from Delhi, he had
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