Some of the biggest companies in tech unleashed layoffs this year. They had varied reasons for doing so; for example, Twitter cut thousands of workers after new management took over, while Meta reduced its workforce in the face of economic uncertainty and an advertising squeeze.

Whatever the causes, here are the tech companies that laid off the most employees in 2022, according to crowdsourced data on layoffs.fyi. As you can see, these layoffs took place across specializations, from e-commerce to networking:

Despite these layoffs, it’s important to keep in mind that organizations throughout the economy continue to hire all kinds of tech professionals for all kinds of roles. The latest data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), as analyzed by CompTIA, shows the tech unemployment rate fell to 2 percent in November. Overall tech sector employment increased by 207,200 between January and November. 

“The hotter-than-anticipated tech jobs report confirms there are still many more employers hiring tech talent than shedding it,” Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA, wrote in a statement when that CompTIA data was released. “It’s certainly premature to dismiss concerns over the health of the economy, but this should be a reassuring sign for the tech workforce.”

So why are some of the biggest tech companies laying off workers? Many of these giants (including Amazon and Meta) hired aggressively during the pandemic, buoyed by extraordinary profits as consumers and companies spent money on everything from new cloud-based software tools to online games. But recent fears of recession have led customers to curtail their spending, leading worried executives to launch new rounds of cost-cutting.

And there are signs the cuts aren’t over yet. Companies such as Micron and Tesla may reduce jobs in the first part of 2023, while Google’s recent attempts at streamlining its costs and operations could lead to layoffs. But it’s important to keep in mind that these companies—and many others—will need to resume hiring at some point in order to fulfill their strategies.