7,5 Million Chinese Programmers Cry as AI Bloodbaths Internet Giants Even 22 Year Veterans Laid Off

The biggest tragedy for programmers is that they trade away the most golden ten years of their lives for a salary that is neither high nor low. When we get older, when our bodies fall apart, and when companies discard us, we suddenly realize that the skills and experience we were once proud of are actually worth nothing. But by that time, mortgages, car loans, and family responsibilities become like invisible shackles, pinning us in place. We want to change, but we are powerless. In the future, 95% of people in these buildings will lose their jobs. Why? Because now an AI agent can replace the work of 100 real humans. This is how powerful it is. Our company currently has 50 programmers working on development, compared with traditional large companies, that is equivalent to 5000 people. Because in the past, each programmer would direct 100 AIs to write code every day. We no longer need that many people. We simply do not need that many people. In the future, we will only need one chief engineer. That person must understand how AI makes decisions and how to command it, and continuously guide AI to complete the work. We always thought physical labor would be the easiest to replace, but now I have to say, it is actually mental labor that is easier to replace. It really feels like the programming industry is in panic recently. There were rumors that Meituan would lay off 4-5% of its staff. Then there were reports about Alibaba as well. I am not sure if everyone has heard about it. As a back-end programmer myself, I feel that everyone around me has developed a general awareness that teams will only get smaller in the future. I have only been at the company for less than one year, and the two mentors in my area have already left our team. This time, I was really laid off. I was let go last month on May 22. Then, yesterday, on June 15, my severance package and my May salary were both paid out together. Our company started pushing AI efficiency in March, and after two months, they laid off a group of people at the end of April, more than 30 people. Then on May 22, another 10 people were cut. That day happened to be when I had just finished and launched a project. If it weren't for that project, I probably would have been laid off together with them at the end of April. It was just a coincidence. My last project was also an AI project. A web version of Lobster, where users could build many agents and let Lobster automatically do tasks for them. But from my side, as a front-end engineer, it didn't feel any different from a normal project because everything related to AI was handled by the algorithms and back-end. From a Peking University master's graduate to a veteran who worked at Alibaba for 22 years, the layoff wave is affecting everyone. I was born in 1981, 45 years old. Now I'm an unemployed, middle-aged woman. Put these three labels together and those who understand will understand. In 1999, I scored 599 points and got into Zhejiang University. In our department, there was a senior named Duan Yongping and a junior named Liang Wenfen with me in between. In 2003, right after graduating from university, my first job was at a small company with fewer than 1,000 employees at the time. That's Alibaba. My first role was not high-level tech or a fancy product manager position, but cold-calling customers every day in sales. In my second year, my income quickly rose from 3,000 yuan to 10,000 yuan, and I was soon promoted from phone sales to the youngest team leader at the time. Within just a few years, I moved up rapidly in both position and salary. At my peak, I even made a bet with Jack Ma, leading my team to increase the automatic renewal rate of 1688 from 10% to 50%. At my lowest point, I stayed stuck at level P7 for a full eight years, almost giving up on the company because I never got promoted to P8. Recently, when faced with the optimization notice, both sides had no disagreement on compensation. She accepted the company's severance package and chose a dignified departure, without any intense negotiations. After being laid off, she plans to start a business near the Alibaba campus and shift into short video content creation. After this incident was exposed, related topics attracted over 900,000 views. Beyond the compensation itself, what sparked discussions was the question of job security for middle-aged workers. In the comment section, many people lamented that working people really have no sense of security at all. Many professionals expressed regret, saying that 22 years of youth were exchanged for a graduation certificate and that the family culture in big tech companies collapsed under cost-cutting pressure. At age 44, reemployment in the internet industry has extremely high barriers and most ordinary people do not have substantial assets as a safety net. Once unemployed, they can easily fall into survival pressure. One user commented that it's really tragic. After working for so many years, middle-aged people have aging parents and children. They said large companies should have more humane management. Some users also believe this employee fully benefited from the internet boom, already owning property in major cities and has full social insurance contributions. For her, being laid off may actually be an early retirement opportunity. Some Weibo influencers argue that this case resonates widely not just because of one person's experience, but because it reflects the broader contraction cycle of major internet platforms. Behind it lies corporate strategic downsizing, intensified market competition, and the collapse of individual job security. Recently, layoffs across major Chinese internet companies have reached an unprecedented scale. Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance, Meituan, and Baidu have all reportedly made varying levels of adjustments, affecting roles such as front-end, testing, data analysis, and operations. In some business lines like travel, content, and e-commerce support, optimization rates reportedly reached 30 to 50 percent. According to Chinese media outlet NetEase, over the past 18 months, the five major internet companies in China collectively laid off more than 130,000 employees. Alibaba cut around 66,000 or 34 percent, Baidu cut 9,600, and JD.com is also reportedly planning to cut around 12,000 positions. But it is important to understand that these public figures only reveal the tip of the iceberg. The real scale of job cuts is far more alarming. At present, layoffs in China's internet industry are largely revealed through employee posts on social media. Many of these are invisible layoffs carried out through performance pressure, job reassignment, or negotiated exits with n plus one compensation rather than formal mass announcements. So how many programmers are there in China? According to public information, by 2025, the total number of employees in the software and information technology services industry has exceeded 11 million, and the number of core software developers, programmers, has surpassed 9.4 million. This is the latest official data. Among them, about 5 to 6 million are core developers, while roughly 3 to 4 million work in testings, operations, and related roles. Between 2022 and 2024, major internet companies collectively laid off more than 30,000 employees. By 2026, the layoff wave has become even more intense. The current estimated unemployment scale is around 80,000 to 1.2 million, accounting for about 10 to 15 percent of the workforce. This has already become a shock on a million person scale. Industry research shows that entry-level programming roles face an automation substitution risk of over 80 percent. Those who are still mainly doing basic code implementation are increasingly feeling the pressure. A programmer said, after AI became widespread, large tech companies started optimizing staff much faster than before, because workload accounting is now directly tied to AI tool efficiency. Many insiders are already warning that the layoff wave in big tech is not a one-time shock, but a cycle that is getting out of control. The second half of 2026 is expected to see even more frequent cuts. With the impact of AI, demand for junior programmers in big companies has dropped sharply, and salaries have steadily declined. Even master's graduates from top universities may remain unemployed for more than half a year. I graduated from an elite 985 university with both bachelor's and master's degrees. I tried starting a business and failed. Then I joined the big tech company and got laid off. Then I got divorced. I was laid off because of AI, and I also lost the courage to look for a new job because of AI. Let me explain why. I worked at Baidu on paid consultation services. In simple terms, users could come to our platform to ask questions about anything, horoscopes, life issues, even medical topics. Later, the company launched a new product, you all know it, Wenxin Yiyang. Then we were told that the entire company must go all-in on AI. At that moment, everyone in our department felt a chill. We all thought it so the company's main product could fully replace our business. Inside the company, we were already being de-prioritized. Outside the company, you could just ask AI for free instead of paying us. Some users even joked that our human experts might just be asking AI themselves before answering. In the end, exactly as we expected, our department was dissolved. There was no surprise. Everyone was just waiting for that day to come. Another older Beijing migrant programmer was suddenly laid off. The severance was paid properly, and the process was quick. But his wife was about to give birth, leaving him under enormous financial pressure. Now, faced with a worsening job market, he feels even more panic and uncertainty. Yesterday afternoon, I received a layoff notice from my company. Hello everyone, I'm Lao Zhao, 38 years old. I have been a migrant worker in Beijing for 12 years, and I have worked in software development for 12 years. Actually, I had already sensed it coming. We had been building a lot of AI tools and some traditional products were gradually being shut down. It was obvious the company's business was shrinking. Earlier, many operation colleagues were already laid off. This year, with the rapid development of AI, the company shifted toward AI transformation and built an internal system. That became the main project, so I already felt that it would be my turn sooner or later. I just didn't expect it to come so fast. It was sudden, because just the day before yesterday, I was still receiving work assignments. Then yesterday afternoon, I got the layoff notice. After I went downstairs, I felt a bit uncomfortable. Looking back at the office building, the city I had stayed in for 12 years suddenly felt unfamiliar. My wife is due in two months, with the baby expected in August, so the pressure is very real. I used to think that as a programmer, as long as you can write code, you will always have a job. Only now do I understand that in the adult world, there is no such thing as a permanent iron rice bowl. The pressure faced by programmers in China comes from both intense workloads and rapid technological change. It demands extreme physical endurance and a continuous learning ability. Anxiety about entering the industry is very common. Even on weekends, many programmers dare not relax, fearing they will fall behind technological updates. Many programmers say they work themselves to exhaustion, only to be discarded. This sense of humiliation and despair cuts deeper than helplessness itself. I was laid off. Eight years in Beijing, 30 years old, working in the internet industry. I had just finished working overtime on the weekend, when my manager said, let's have a chat. I immediately understood. It was coming. The whole team was cut. The manager kept softening the message, saying the project had ended, and the company was in difficulty. On the surface, I said, hmm, I understand. But inside, I was already extremely anxious. This is my second time being laid off. Do you know, I struggled with whether to resign for a full month, staying or leaving, my mind fighting itself every day. In the end, life just pressed the pause button for me. I'm 30 years old now. I worked in the internet industry like a machine. Finally, I can catch my breath. This is not just one programmer venting anxiety on short video platforms. These stories keep repeating on MyMy, Xiaohongshu, and Douyin. The cruelty of internet layoffs is they're hitting a group of people who were once seen as part of the middle class. As one programmer said, the moment of being laid off feels like being a piece of sugarcane that had been squeezed dry and spat out. Those who worked day and night writing code, accepting endless overtime, and enduring everything, end up becoming the first wave of casualties in the AI era. Working overtime, staying up late, and keeping a 12-hour-a-day, six-days-a-week schedule, only to be quickly discarded in the face of quarterly KPIs or AI optimization, means not only financial loss, but also a huge psychological collapse. Many people have invested their youth, health, and family time into these so-called high-paying stable jobs. Buying homes, getting married, having children, taking on mortgages, all of this is tightly linked together. Sudden unemployment is not just loss of income, but the collapse of identity itself. I worked so hard, followed all the rules, so why am I still being discarded? On Xiaohongshu, the topic of AI anxiety has received over 7.8 million views, where users are discussing whether AI will, like the mechanized looms of the 19th century, replace manual workers and take away their jobs. Once upon a time, China's internet industry was seen as a symbol of high salaries and rapid growth. Many believed that joining giants like Tencent, Alibaba, Baidu, and ByteDance was a ticket into the middle class. Therefore, many programmers have gritted their teeth and endured heavy overtime routines inside these companies. However, the health condition of middle-aged programmers has been steadily declining. In January of this year, Guangzhou-based programmer Guan Hui, age 32, suddenly passed away after working for seven years at Shiyuan Technology. His death triggered widespread discussion online. His monthly salary had risen from $1,700 to $2,800, and he had been promoted to department manager. He had already gotten married and bought a home, but he often worked overtime until 2am. On the night before the incident, he returned home at 10pm, went to sleep at 1am, and the next morning collapsed after leaving home. He was sent to the hospital but could not be saved. The company did not provide compensation. His wife made a heartbreaking appeal. Do not sacrifice your life for work. Once you're gone, everything you were once proud of will turn into nothing. During its rapid expansion phase, China's internet companies relied on a human seed strategy. They employed extreme workload pressure to seize time windows. But when the industry shifted from wild growth to refined, high-quality development, the consequences of that model began to appear. These include talent exhaustion, high health costs, unstable families, and, ultimately, reduced long-term innovation capabilities. The 2026 job market in China is undergoing an unprecedented shock. Continuous economic downturn, relocation of industrial chains, and downturns in real estate and manufacturing have led to a sharp reduction in available jobs. At the same time, tens of millions of university graduates are entering the job market, creating enormous employment pressure. The internet sector, once a reservoir absorbing large amounts of highly educated young people, is now under severe contraction due to layoffs. Many companies are not only reducing hiring on a large scale, but also eliminating entry-level development positions entirely, leaving almost no clear path for computer science graduates to enter the industry. At a deeper level, a structural contradiction in China's labor market is becoming exposed. Traditional industries are unable to generate enough jobs, while the internet sector is shrinking at the same time, causing the entire employment reservoir to dry up. As a result, millions of programmers and technical workers are being pushed into the gig economy or into lower skilled jobs. This undermines social mobility and stability. Falling consumption power and weakening public confidence then feed back into the economy, further deepening the slowdown. you