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Resources for tracking layoffs

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After several years of trending upwards, the global economy is now shrinking and the threat of another recession is looming.

The subject of layoffs can be a scary and traumatising topic, especially for those who had to endure them, be it in the most recent downturn cycle or some time in the past.

While tracking these negative market events is not exactly mainstream OSINT, it is useful from the perspective of staying informed and aware of how bad / good the general tech job market is.

The knowledge of how to track layoffs might sometimes be helpful when conducting corporate due diligence, but more importantly it can be very useful for anybody who is considering making career changing decisions – now or in the near future.

Hopefully the resources listed below will be of use.

Hashtags and keywords on platforms

Here’s a selection of the most popular platforms where you are likely to encounter relevant search results for the “layoffs” keyword. Remember that in some cases you will need to be logged in on these sites in order to see the results.

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Google operator searches

Everybody loves Google operators.

Note that the dorks listed below are general in nature and can be adapted for more detailed results. For better regional relevance, consider changing the Google top domain (from example, from google.com go to google.fr to prioritise results in a chosen language). Even better still, if you can conduct these searches in the target language without relying on translations.

Substituting the “company name” part with a name of a geographical region, country or a city will also work well when narrowing down your search criteria.

PS. If you encountered an accessibility problem with any of the sites above due to not having / not wanting to have an account there, you can still search through Google-indexed results this way:

layoffs site:example.com

  • intitle:layoffs – find pages that contain “layoffs” in their title
  • allintitle:layoffs [company name] – find pages that contain “layoffs” and the specified company name
  • inurl:layoffs – find pages with “layoffs” in the URL
  • allinurl:layoffs [company name] – find pages with “layoffs” and the specified company name in the URL
  • layoffs source:[source name] – mentions of layoffs in the selected source (for example, “nytimes”)

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Trend analysis

Trend analysis, thanks to a broad scope, can sometimes yield more answers than searching directly for layoffs in a particular country or company:

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Layoffs trackers

Below we have some custom made trackers that not only give figures and percentage breakdowns, but also list information sources used to feed into the tracker. Note that these might vary depending on the inputs, as well as on how often they get updated with new information.

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News aggregator websites

Results will vary here and most likely will be subject to a regional bias. Having said that, these sources will allow a good overview of the topic across many sectors of the market.

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BONUS: Check out this Linkedin article titled “How to navigate your career during uncertain times” for career development advice in the harsh circumstances of unforeseen layoffs – what’s important, how to react, prepare and focus on getting back in the saddle.

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