After a shocking amount of tech layoffs in January 2023 that fueled an historic wave of job cuts, many tech companies were able to enter 2024 in relatively good economic shape.

Companies like Cisco and SAP, however, have continued cutting staff into 2024.

The latest cuts come from Cognizant, which laid off its YouTube Music staff in Austin, Texas, this week following the end of a contract between Alphabet and the professional services firm. While yesterday’s contract end date was planned, employees saw the layoffs as “sudden and unexpected.”

The YouTube Music layoffs were announced at the same time as contract employees attended an Austin City Council meeting where a resolution passed to urge Alphabet and Cognizant to engage in fair negotiations with the YouTube Music union.

In 2023, layoffs at tech giants including Google, Microsoft, Meta and Amazon totaled 262,915 positions, which was 100,000 more than 2022. Though the market has improved since 2023 with revenues and stock values steadily rising, nearly 170 companies have made workforce-based cost-cutting efforts in 2024.

Tech companies have already laid off more than 40,000 employees in 2024 – just 6,000 less than the total tech layoffs in the second half of 2023. Data from Stocklytics and Layoffs.fyi shows that 40% of tech job cuts in 2024 happened at just four companies: SAP, Cisco, PayPal and Farfetch.

According to Layoffs.fyi data, SAP leads 2024 job cuts with 8,000 layoffs as part of a restructuring process. Cisco laid off 4,250 employees, PayPal parted ways with 2,500 employees and Farfetch cut 2,000 jobs this year (so far).

In addition, Microsoft, Google, Block, eBay, Citrix and Wayfair have each laid off at least 1,000 employees so far this year. Most of those job cuts happened in the United States.

In the past four years, nearly half a million tech employees have been laid off. One-fourth of those job cuts happened at 15 companies, including industry leaders such as Ericsson, Salesforce, IBM, Twitter, Uber and Micron.