When Oracle employees checked their inboxes on March 31, many were met with an unexpected message confirming the end of their roles at the company. The email cited “careful consideration of Oracle’s current business needs” and stated that the decision was part of a broader organisational restructuring.
What many affected employees may not have known at the time is that Oracle had also been actively filing petitions to hire foreign talent in the United States. According to data from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the company submitted around 3,126 H-1B visa petitions across fiscal years 2025 and 2026, including 436 petitions in 2026 alone—the same period in which layoffs are being implemented.
The H-1B visa programme allows US companies to employ skilled foreign workers, particularly in the technology sector, provided they demonstrate a lack of suitable domestic candidates. Other major tech firms have followed similar patterns. Amazon, for instance, filed approximately 21,696 H-1B petitions during the same period, even as it carried out layoffs impacting around 30,000 employees across multiple rounds.
Impact in India
Reports suggest that nearly 12,000 employees in India could be affected by Oracle’s restructuring, with further job cuts expected in the coming weeks. Oracle had approximately 162,000 full-time employees globally as of May 2025, according to regulatory filings. While the company has not officially disclosed the full extent of the layoffs, internal reports and employee updates indicate that several divisions—including Oracle Health, Cloud Infrastructure, Sales, Customer Success, and NetSuite—are impacted.
India’s role in the global tech ecosystem makes the situation particularly significant, as it serves both as a major contributor to H-1B talent in the US and as a key offshore delivery hub for multinational tech companies.
The H-1B programme also became a political flashpoint recently after former US President Donald Trump introduced a proclamation imposing a $100,000 annual fee on certain visa holders, prompting widespread concern and strategic shifts within Silicon Valley firms.
Part of a broader tech slowdown
Oracle’s layoffs are part of a wider wave of restructuring across the global technology industry, driven by slowing growth, rising operational costs, and a renewed focus on artificial intelligence investments.
Companies such as Meta have also announced workforce reductions in recent weeks. According to Layoffs.fyi, more than 41,000 employees across 78 tech companies have been laid off so far in 2026, highlighting the scale of ongoing industry-wide restructuring.
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