Updated Telecom-IT Layoff Tracker September 2023: Cisco, Ingram Micro, Trellix, T-Mobile, More

Although at a slower pace, the onslaught of tech companies announcing layoffs impacting thousands of workers continued into the third quarter of 2023.

It all comes amid economic uncertainty, and some companies, such as Cisco and Secureworks, have announced further layoffs. Our layoff tracker is normally a biannual update, but since the start of the year, more than 50 companies doing business in the channel have announced layoffs. Zebra Technologies, Slalom, T-Mobile, Secureworks and Rapid7 are among the latest pink-slipping workers. The cuts are in the hundreds, and in some cases, the thousands.

IT Job Market, Opportunities for IT Pros ‘Less Than Optimal’

According to the latest from Janco and Associates, the job market for IT professions is mixed as the IT unemployment rate soared to 4.1% despite almost 200,000 unfilled open requisitions.  In July, there were 64,000 unemployed IT pros, In August there were 106,000, a 65% increase. On the plus side, 21,500 jobs were added to the IT job market in the last three months.

Janco revised its forecast for the IT job market down by over 20,000 to 60,000-70,000 from 80,000-90,000 for the calendar year 2023.

Janco’s Victor Janulaitis

“Based on our analysis, the IT job market and opportunities for IT professionals are mixed,” said Janco CEO Victor Janulaitis. “In the past three months, telecommunications lost 8,800 jobs (29,600 in the last 12 months), content providers lost 3,000 jobs (9,300 in the last 12 months), and other information services lost 1,300 jobs (5,300 in the last 12 months). Gainers in the last three months, computer system designers gained 20,000 jobs (58,400 in the last 12 months), and hosting providers gained 14,600 jobs (25,400 jobs in the last 12 months).  Currently, there are almost 200,000 unfilled jobs with over 100,000 IP pros – a skills mismatch.”

Artificial intelligence (AI) is slowing the growth of many entry level positions within IT, especially in customer service, telecommunications and hosting automation. CIOs and CFOs are looking to improve the productivity of IT by automating processes and reporting where possible. They are focusing on eliminating “non-essential” managers, staff and services. Experienced coders and developers still have opportunities. The highest demand continues to be for AI, security professionals, programmers and blockchain-processing IT pros.

See our up-to-date layoff tracker above – including those that have happened since our last update – for the many job cuts already this year.