At first it sounded like a cruel joke from early April Fools’ Day. But in reality, tech giant Oracle allegedly sent an email to workers at 6 a.m. on March 31 to deliver digital layoff notices (1).
“We are sharing some difficult news regarding your position,” the email sent to staff and reviewed by Insider business informationsaying. “After careful consideration of Oracle’s current business needs, we have made the decision to eliminate your role as part of a broader organizational change. As a result, today is your last day of work” (2).
It is unclear exactly how many employees lost their jobs, with reports ranging from 10,000 (3) to 30,000 (4). The latter would represent almost 19% of the company’s 162,000 workers (5). Regarding money He contacted Oracle for clarification on the number of job cuts and the reasons behind them, but was told that “Oracle declines to comment.”
One of the laid-off employees, Nina Lewis, who was a security alerts manager, posted on LinkedIn after receiving the notice: “After 34 (33 of them fantastic) years at Oracle, I join the approximately 30,000 laid off today. Quite a shock.” He added that “It appears that layoffs follow an algorithm of high-level individual contributors and mid-level managers, especially those with outstanding stock options” (6).
The layoffs came after Oracle, co-founded by billionaire Larry Ellison, who also serves as its CEO, posted a 95% net income increase last quarter, to the tune of just over $6 billion (7). The company’s stock, however, closed at $147.11 on the day of the layoffs (8), roughly a 55% drop from its all-time high close last September at $326.90.
Oracle is, like Bloomberg noted (9), trying to manage “a cash crunch stemming from a massive AI data center expansion effort” as it pivots to compete with Amazon and boost AI infrastructure for companies like OpenAI, with which it signed a $300 billion deal last year (10). Oracle’s borrowing costs have also been reported to have doubled (4) as banks stopped funding data center expansion, while an analysis by TD Cowen found that cutting 20,000 to 30,000 jobs could save the company up to $10 billion (11).
Workers in many industries have long feared the idea of AI coming to their jobs. In fact, a March Quinnipiac University survey showed that 30% of all employed Americans are worried that AI will make their jobs obsolete (12).
And their fears are not unfounded. A 2025 MIT study found that 11.7% of the labor market (including “finance, healthcare, and professional services”) could be replaced by AI (13).
However, at big tech companies, those fears are becoming reality at a rapid pace and are often tied to the expansion of AI. Tracking websites like Layoffs.fyi and Trueup put big tech companies’ job cuts so far this year at between 41,000 and 85,000; the latter is equivalent to almost 1,000 layoffs per day.
Oracle’s cuts came shortly after CEO Mike Sicilia praised AI coding tools “that enable smaller engineering teams to deliver more complete solutions” (14).
Meanwhile, Amazon laid off 16,000 corporate workers in January, following the 14,000 jobs it cut last October (15), after CEO Andy Jassy admitted in a memo to staff that AI “will reduce our total corporate workforce as we realize efficiency gains” (16).
Additionally, Dell cut 11,000 jobs in late January, which some attributed to an eventual modernization of AI (17), while Block Inc. linked its more than 4,000 February cuts to AI (18). Meta’s focus on AI is said to be behind its decision to lay off approximately 700 employees in March (19), while Atlassian laid off 1,600 employees that same month, before making further investments in AI (20).
And last year, Microsoft laid off at least 15,000 employees amid speculation about a shift toward greater automation and AI tools (21).
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As Oracle employees learned, layoffs can happen quickly and without warning. If you find yourself laid off unexpectedly, here are four things you can do before you leave for good.
1. Get Organized: Attorney Arick Fudali told CNBC that the first thing you should do is make copies of your layoff notice and any other layoff communications before you lose access to your work accounts (22). He also advised against signing any severance agreement until you can read it carefully and consult the company’s human resources policy and state or federal laws. If you feel you are the victim of an illegal termination, consider contacting an employment attorney.
2. Keep it professional: Just because you got fired doesn’t mean it’s time to start burning bridges. It is good to maintain work contacts, both for your own career and in case there is a problem related to your dismissal and you need to contact the company to resolve it.
3. Get what you’re owed: In addition to severance, make sure you know what you are owed in terms of final paychecks and outstanding benefit payments. And if you have a 401(k), you’ll have to decide whether you want to leave it with your old employer or just roll it over to an IRA.
4. Ask for referrals: Before you leave, ask for references from any relevant coworkers or supervisors you can use in your next job search. Even if you’ve lost that job, you never know when a glowing review from a former colleague might help you land the next one.
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New York Post (1); Business insider information (2); BBC (3); Forbes (4); Oracle (5); LinkedIn (6); CIO (7); Macrotrends (8); Bloomberg (9); Wall Street Journal (10); CIO (11); Quinnipiac University Poll (12); MIT (13); Investing.com (14); CNBC (15); Business insider information (16); Business insider information (17); Wall Street Journal (18); New York Times (19); The Guardian (20); Fortune (21); CNBC (22)
This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.
