Tech layoffs: what our hiring data actually shows
Level does not track layoffs.
No source we ingest reports headcount reductions, and we will not guess. What follows is the closest honest proxy we can compute from our own catalog of job postings: how fast each category is opening new roles, how many postings closed on boards that are still active, and which companies’ boards stopped responding entirely. A closed posting may mean the role was filled, not that anyone was laid off. We cannot tell the difference, so we don’t claim to.
Measured November 8, 2026, last 30 days vs the 30 days before that. How we measure
Hiring pace by category
New postings opened in the last 30 days, compared with the 30 days before that. Sorted by the steepest drop first.
| Category | Last 30d | Previous 30d | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Data Annotation & AI Training | 11 | 43 | -74% |
| Content | 129 | 332 | -61% |
| Education | 111 | 171 | -35% |
| Marketing | 2,063 | 2,923 | -29% |
| Sales | 7,853 | 10,891 | -28% |
| Legal | 698 | 890 | -22% |
| Software Engineering | 16,663 | 21,236 | -22% |
| Customer Support | 960 | 1,202 | -20% |
| HR | 1,471 | 1,801 | -18% |
| Design | 768 | 939 | -18% |
| Product | 2,157 | 2,601 | -17% |
| Data | 3,604 | 4,328 | -17% |
| Research | 705 | 842 | -16% |
| Operations | 6,797 | 7,747 | -12% |
| Security | 1,592 | 1,781 | -11% |
| Finance | 3,444 | 3,597 | -4% |
| Healthcare | 1,414 | 1,373 | +3% |
16 categories are opening new roles more slowly than the previous 30 days: Data Annotation & AI Training, Content, Education, Marketing, Sales. A slower pace of new postings, not a count of people let go.
Postings that closed
99,361 postings were removed from an active company’s board in the last 30 days. Filled or withdrawn, we cannot tell which.
- Software Engineering: 16,744
- Sales: 7,969
- Operations: 7,171
- Data: 3,795
- Finance: 3,340
Companies whose board went dark
32 companies we track no longer respond on their careers page (three failed checks in a row). That can mean a hiring freeze, a site migration, or nothing at all. We only know the board stopped answering.
- Parloasince November 7, 2026
- Rossumsince November 5, 2026
- Aircallsince November 4, 2026
- Doctolibsince November 2, 2026
- Kaluzasince November 2, 2026
- MintMCPsince October 28, 2026
- Tzafonsince October 25, 2026
- Nothingsince October 24, 2026
- Scout AIsince October 20, 2026
- Cybereasonsince October 17, 2026
- Webflowsince October 17, 2026
- Pairessince October 16, 2026
- Halasince October 11, 2026
- Clarity AIsince October 9, 2026
- Hexsince October 4, 2026
Method: categories exclude uncategorized postings. Hiring pace compares live and closed postings by posted_at across two equal 30-day windows; a percentage is only shown when the earlier window has at least 20 postings, otherwise the sample is too small to read as a rate. Closed postings are ATS-sourced roles removed from a still-active company’s board, not paid listings that simply expired after 30 days. Dark boards are companies marked inactive after repeated failed checks on their applicant tracking system. Counted November 2026. Levels and sourcing follow our method.