Cisco Layoffs: 2026 Restructuring, Severance, WARN and Employee Guide

Q: How many people did Cisco lay off in 2026?

Cisco has not published a number. Its Q3 fiscal 2026 earnings release of 13 May 2026 quantifies the restructuring financially — up to $1 billion in pre-tax charges, about $450 million in Q4 FY2026 and the remainder in fiscal 2027 — but states no headcount. The widely reported figure of fewer than 4,000 roles, under 5% of the workforce, comes from reporting and the earnings call rather than the written release.

Q: What severance does Cisco pay?

Cisco has never published a formula. Its own release confirms only that the charge consists of severance and other one-time termination benefits. Reporting and employee accounts describe a tenure-based structure of roughly one to two weeks per year of service, plus career transition services for about three months through an external provider. Treat that as orientation and ask for your own figure in writing — terms vary by country and role.

Q: Which Cisco teams were most affected?

Cisco named the areas it is investing in — silicon, optics, security and AI — rather than the areas it is cutting. Reporting places the reductions disproportionately in legacy switching and routing and in on-premises collaboration, as customers move to software-defined and cloud alternatives. Confirm your own organisation rather than relying on that pattern.

Q: Has Cisco filed WARN notices for this round?

LayoffNext's own WARN ingest holds no Cisco filings in its current window. That is a statement about site concentration rather than about scale — WARN is triggered by a mass layoff at a single worksite, and a global reduction spread thinly across many sites often does not reach the threshold anywhere. Check your own state's WARN database directly for your worksite.

Q: I joined Cisco through the Splunk acquisition — do the same terms apply?

Not necessarily. Acquired employees often carry different severance terms, equity treatment and tenure calculations, because the acquisition agreement preserved them for a period. Establish which document governs yours — your original offer, an acquisition retention agreement, or Cisco's standard policy — before you compare your package with a colleague's.

Recent layoffMedium confidenceLatest verified event: May 13, 2026· Reviewed September 17, 2026

Cisco is executing a restructuring announced in May 2026 whose financial scale it disclosed precisely and whose headcount it did not — a gap worth knowing about before you read a headline number as a company figure.

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Educational, employee-first summary of publicly available information — not legal, financial, tax or immigration advice, and not affiliated with or endorsed by Cisco. Verify your specific situation with HR, official notices and qualified professionals.

Quick answer

Latest verified development: On 13 May 2026, alongside Q3 fiscal 2026 results, Cisco announced a restructuring plan with estimated pre-tax charges of up to $1 billion — about $450 million in Q4 FY2026 and the remainder in fiscal 2027 — to fund investment in silicon, optics, security and AI. Notifications were reported to begin the following day.
What kind of event: A company-announced restructuring disclosed through the quarterly earnings release, with the financial impact confirmed by Cisco and the headcount supplied by reporting rather than by the release itself.
What number is confirmed: Cisco's earnings release does not state a job count. The widely reported figure of fewer than 4,000 roles, under 5% of the workforce, comes from reporting and the earnings call — not from the written release. Cisco reported about 86,200 employees in its FY2025 10-K.
Who appears most affected: Reported to fall hardest on legacy switching and routing and on on-premises collaboration teams, as spend shifts to AI infrastructure. Cisco has said it is investing in silicon, optics, security and AI — confirm your own org.
What to verify first: Your separation date, whether your role is eliminated or reorganised, your commission and quota status if you are in sales, your RSU vest dates, and whether a state WARN notice covers your site.

Current status as of August 26, 2026

Classification: Recent layoff

Confirmed

✓Restructuring plan announced 13 May 2026 with Q3 FY2026 results; quarterly revenue of $15.8 billion.
✓Estimated pre-tax charges of up to $1 billion, consisting of severance and other one-time termination benefits and other costs.
✓About $450 million of those charges to be recognised in Q4 FY2026, with the remainder expected during fiscal 2027.
✓Cisco's stated purpose: to allow it to invest in key growth opportunities including silicon, optics, security and AI.
✓Cisco reported approximately 86,200 employees in its Form 10-K for fiscal 2025.

Reported / proposed (not confirmed)

•Reporting and the earnings call put the reduction at fewer than 4,000 roles, under 5% of the workforce — this figure is not in the written earnings release.
•Notifications reported to have begun on 14 May 2026 and to have rolled through Q4 of fiscal 2026.
•Reported to weigh most heavily on legacy switching and routing and on on-premises collaboration teams.

Cisco snapshot

Legal employer name	Cisco Systems, Inc.
Common name	Cisco
Parent company	None (independent)
Covered subsidiaries	Splunk, Webex, Meraki, ThousandEyes, Duo Security
Industry	Networking, security and enterprise infrastructure
Headquarters	San Jose, California, United States
Ticker	CSCO (NASDAQ)
Employee base	~86,200 employees (as of July 26, 2025)
Latest verified event	May 2026 restructuring plan: up to $1B in pre-tax charges, headcount not disclosed — May 13, 2026
Historical H-1B sponsor	Yes (federal data)
Source confidence	Medium confidence
Guide last reviewed	September 17, 2026 by Deepak Middha

Cisco layoff timeline

Cisco has now run three sizeable restructurings in three years, and each was disclosed the same way: as a financial event in an earnings release, with the headcount left to reporting. That pattern matters when you are trying to establish what actually happened to your own team — the dollar figures are auditable and the people figures usually are not.

May 2026 restructuring plan: up to $1B in pre-tax charges, headcount not disclosed

May 13, 2026high

RestructuringCompany-announcedAffected: Reported at fewer than 4,000 (<5% of workforce) — not stated in Cisco's release (~5%)

Affected divisions: Legacy switching and routing (reported), On-premises collaboration (reported), Corporate functions
Affected roles: Engineering, Sales, Support, Corporate
Locations: Global, United States

Company-stated reason: Cisco's Q3 FY2026 release states the plan is intended to allow it to invest in key growth opportunities including silicon, optics, security and AI. It quantifies the charges — up to $1 billion, about $450 million in Q4 FY2026 with the remainder in fiscal 2027 — as severance and other one-time termination benefits and other costs. [1],[3]

What this means for you: The $1 billion charge is confirmed by Cisco; the 4,000 figure is not. If you are trying to work out whether your site meets a WARN threshold, count from your own worksite rather than from the national number, and check your state's WARN database directly.

August 2024: second restructuring of the year, ~7% of the workforce reported

August 14, 2024medium

RestructuringCompany-announcedAffected: ~6,000 reported (~7% of workforce) (~7%)

Affected divisions: Multiple business units
Affected roles: Engineering, Sales, Corporate
Locations: Global

Company-stated reason: Announced with fiscal Q4 2024 results as a plan to shift investment toward AI, cloud and cybersecurity — the second restructuring Cisco announced in 2024. [4]

What this means for you: Relevant if you are weighing a 2026 offer: Cisco has restructured repeatedly, so tenure-based severance calculations and re-hire assumptions should account for a pattern rather than a one-off.

February 2024: restructuring affecting about 5% of the workforce

February 14, 2024medium

RestructuringCompany-announcedAffected: ~4,000 reported (~5% of workforce) (~5%)

Affected divisions: Multiple business units
Affected roles: Sales, Engineering, Corporate
Locations: Global

Company-stated reason: Announced with fiscal Q2 2024 results as a reallocation toward higher-growth areas. [5]

What this means for you: The first of three consecutive restructurings. If you joined after this round, your tenure clock for severance purposes starts from your own hire date, not from continuous Cisco history.

What changed between rounds

Cisco disclosed the money precisely and the people not at all

The Q3 FY2026 release gives exact figures for the charge — up to $1 billion, roughly $450 million in Q4 FY2026, the rest in fiscal 2027 — and describes it as severance and other one-time termination benefits. It does not say how many people. Every '4,000 jobs' headline you will read traces back to reporting and the earnings call rather than to that document. That is not a reason to distrust the number, but it is a reason not to treat it as company-confirmed.

Three restructurings in three years

February 2024, August 2024 and May 2026. For someone deciding whether to accept a package or hold on, that pattern is more useful than any single announcement: Cisco has repeatedly chosen reallocation over attrition, and the stated destination each time has been AI, security and infrastructure silicon.

The named investment areas tell you where the floor is

Cisco named silicon, optics, security and AI as the growth areas it is funding. Reporting places the reductions disproportionately in legacy switching and routing and on-premises collaboration. If your role sits in one of the named growth areas, the picture is different from a colleague's in a legacy line — worth establishing before you assume anything about redeployment.

Charges spanning two fiscal years means a long tail

Cisco expects part of the charge in Q4 FY2026 and the remainder during fiscal 2027. A restructuring booked across two fiscal years is one that executes over months, not in a single week — so a notification date in your org does not mean the process has finished elsewhere.

WARN notice research

Cisco's reductions are global and spread across many sites, which is exactly the shape that produces relatively few WARN filings — the threshold is a mass layoff at a single site, not a company total. LayoffNext's own WARN ingest holds no Cisco filings in its current window, which is evidence about site concentration rather than about scale. Check your state directly.

No matching official filing was located during the latest review. This does not establish that WARN did not apply or that no notice exists. WARN coverage depends on the employer, worksite, event size, timing, exceptions and state law. Verify in the official database for your worksite's state — not the company headquarters state.

Check the official WARN database for your worksite state:

California WARN Texas WARN North Carolina WARN Massachusetts WARN

WARN Tracker What a WARN notice means WARN law by state

Historically reported Cisco severance packages

Cisco has never published a severance formula. What its Q3 FY2026 release does confirm is that the charge consists of severance and other one-time termination benefits, which tells you severance exists and is substantial in aggregate but nothing about your individual entitlement. The figures below are reported and should be treated as orientation, not expectation.

Employees affected by the May 2026 restructuring · 2026

Reported / undisclosed

United States

Cisco confirmed the aggregate cost but not the individual formula. Reporting and employee accounts describe a tenure-based structure in the region of one to two weeks per year of service, with career transition services provided through an external provider for roughly three months. Cisco has not published these terms, and they are not uniform across countries. [1],[3]

Cash severance (reported)	Tenure-based, reported around 1–2 weeks per year of service — request your own figure in writing
Notice	Where a state or federal WARN notice applies, notice pay may run alongside severance rather than instead of it — check your state
Equity	Unvested RSU treatment set by the equity plan and award agreement — confirm your next vest date against your separation date
Commissions	Sales roles: confirm treatment of earned but unpaid commissions, quota credit and accelerators
Career transition	Outplacement reported via an external provider for approximately three months

Note: Cisco has not published a severance formula. The per-year figures here come from secondary reporting and employee accounts, vary by country and role, and are not a commitment. Only the written agreement you are given controls what you receive.

What signing asks you to give up

Severance is almost never a gift. In the United States it is nearly always consideration — payment in exchange for a release of claims, which is the operative half of the document and the half that is easy to skim past. Before you sign Cisco's agreement, know what the release actually covers and what it cannot.

Typically waived	Claims arising from your employment and its end — discrimination, wrongful termination, harassment and retaliation — usually including claims you do not yet know about.
Wage claims — treated differently	Do not assume unpaid wages are released just because the agreement is broadly worded. Whether a statutory wage claim can be released at all varies by the statute and by your state. Federal minimum-wage and overtime rights under the FLSA are the clearest example: the Supreme Court held that allowing employees to waive statutory wages “would nullify the purposes of the Act,” and extended the same reasoning to liquidated damages (Brooklyn Savings Bank v. O'Neil, 324 U.S. 697 (1945)). Congress provided a specific route instead — payment supervised by the Secretary of Labor, which on payment in full does waive the private right of action (29 U.S.C. § 216(c)) — and courts commonly require court approval or a bona fide dispute for anything else, with the rules differing between circuits. Several states go further: California, for example, voids a release of a wage claim taken before the wages are paid, and bars its wage-payment rules from being “contravened or set aside by a private agreement” (Cal. Lab. Code §§ 206.5, 219). If you are owed final pay, PTO, commissions or overtime, treat that as a separate question from the release and get advice on your own state's rule.
Often added alongside	Non-disparagement, confidentiality about the agreement, cooperation clauses, return-of-property terms, and sometimes non-solicit or non-compete restrictions. These are obligations you take on, not claims you release — read them separately.
Cannot be waived	Your right to file a charge with the EEOC, or to take part in an EEOC investigation. Federal regulation is explicit: no waiver agreement may include a provision prohibiting anyone from filing a charge — including a challenge to the validity of the waiver itself— or from participating in an EEOC proceeding, and none may impose a penalty or condition that adversely affects that right (29 C.F.R. § 1625.22(i)). Vested retirement benefits, unemployment eligibility and, in most states, workers' compensation claims also sit outside a release.
If you are 40 or older	“An individual may not waive any right or claim under this chapter unless the waiver is knowing and voluntary” — and the ADEA sets out what that requires at a minimum (29 U.S.C. § 626(f)(1)). Which consideration period applies depends on how the offer is made: At least 21 days to consider the agreement — the general rule for a waiver offered to you individually (§ 626(f)(1)(F)(i)). At least 45 days instead, where the waiver is requested in connection with an exit incentive or other employment termination program offered to a group or class of employees (§ 626(f)(1)(F)(ii)). Whether your separation is part of such a program is a factual question about how the employer structured and offered the waiver — a company announcing a layoff round does not by itself establish that every separation agreement in it is part of a group program. At least 7 days after you sign in which you may revoke, and the agreement cannot become effective or enforceable until that period expires (§ 626(f)(1)(G)). This one cannot be shortened. Where a waiver is requested in connection with such a group program, the employer must also inform you in writing, at the start of the consideration period, of the class, unit or group covered, the eligibility factors and any time limits, plus the job titles and ages of everyone eligible or selected and the ages of everyone in the same job classification or organizational unit who was not selected (§ 626(f)(1)(H)). Do not assume which period applies to you. Read the agreement itself — it normally states the consideration period on its face — and check whether you were given decisional-unit information alongside it. If the stated window is shorter than you expected, or group disclosures are absent where the waiver appears to be tied to a group program, that is worth raising with an employment lawyer before you sign rather than assuming either 21 or 45 days is your entitlement.

If those requirements are not met, the age-claim waiver does not hold. The Supreme Court put it plainly in Oubre v. Entergy Operations, Inc., 522 U.S. 422 (1998): a release that does not comply with the OWBPA “is unenforceable against her insofar as it purports to waive or release her ADEA claim… the release cannot bar her ADEA suit, irrespective of the validity of the contract as to other claims” — and she did not have to give the money back first. Note the second half of that sentence: the defect invalidates the ADEA waiver, not automatically every other provision of the agreement, which may still bind you. It is also the employer's burden to prove a waiver was knowing and voluntary (§ 626(f)(3)), which is why a shortened window or a missing group disclosure is worth raising before you sign rather than after. Severance agreements over 40 (OWBPA) covers this in full, and severance agreement red flags covers the clauses worth pushing back on. This is general information, not legal advice about your situation.

Past packages provide historical context only. Your terms may differ by layoff round, role, level, tenure, location, legal employer and separation agreement. If you are 40 or older, review the severance agreement over 40 (OWBPA) guide before signing.

Estimate your severance

Free severance pay calculator — not a promise of Cisco terms.

Calculate your runway

Combine severance, notice/WARN pay, final pay, PTO, unemployment and savings against expenses.

Cisco-specific compensation issues

Commissions and quota credit for sales roles

Cisco's sales organisation runs on quota and accelerators, and a mid-quarter separation raises three separate questions: what is already earned, what is credited for deals in flight, and whether the plan requires employment on the payout date. Ask for each in writing. Some states restrict an employer's ability to defeat an already-earned commission with an employment-on-payout-date condition; others leave it to the plan. [1]

RSU vest dates versus your separation date

The treatment of unvested RSUs is controlled by the applicable equity plan, your award agreement and your separation terms. With a restructuring booked across two fiscal years, separation dates are being set individually rather than on a single day — which means a vest date falling shortly after your proposed separation is a concrete, specific thing to raise before you sign. [1]

If you joined through Splunk or another acquisition

Acquired employees frequently carry different severance terms, different equity treatment and different tenure calculations from legacy Cisco staff, because the acquisition agreement often preserved them for a period. Find out whether your terms come from your original offer, an acquisition retention agreement, or Cisco's standard policy — they are not always the same document. [2]

Health insurance, benefits and final pay

•Ask for the exact benefits-termination date in writing. It is often later than the separation date, and it starts your COBRA election window and any Marketplace special enrollment period.
•Career transition services were reported at around three months through an external provider — confirm the provider, the start date and what it actually includes before you assume it replaces a job search.
•If you hold unvested RSUs, request a written schedule showing each tranche and its treatment at separation.

Final pay, unused PTO, bonus and commission treatment depend on your work state, company policy, legal employer, separation agreement and pay classification — there is no single nationwide rule (for example, some states treat accrued PTO as earned wages, others leave it to policy). Verify with these tools:

Final Paycheck Calculator COBRA vs Marketplace Unemployment hub Severance & tax

H-1B and employment-visa considerations

Historical sponsorship: Yes — Cisco Systems, Inc.

Cisco Systems, Inc. appears in federal H-1B petition data as a long-standing sponsor. If you are on an H-1B, the date that governs is your last day of employment: a discretionary grace period of up to 60 days may be available, or until your I-94 expires if that comes sooner. Because this restructuring is executing across two fiscal years with individually set separation dates, get your own last day in writing rather than working from a company-wide notification date. [2],[1]

•For an eligible H-1B worker, the regulation provides a discretionary period of up to 60 consecutive days following cessation of the employment on which the classification was based, or until the authorized validity period ends, whichever is shorter (8 C.F.R. § 214.1(l)(2)). It is available once during each authorized validity period, and DHS may shorten or eliminate it.
•A payroll, severance or employer-labelled termination date does not automatically resolve when that cessation occurred. Confirm the facts promptly with qualified immigration counsel rather than counting days from the date on your letter.
•The period may allow a transfer, a change of status or departure, but it is not work authorization in itself — unless otherwise authorized, you may not work during it.
•Ask about internal transfer and subsidiary transfer options, employment-verification letters, and any I-140/green-card process impact.

H-1B layoff guide 60-day countdown Questions for an immigration attorney

This is general information, not case-specific legal advice. Consult a qualified immigration attorney about your situation.

Alumni and former-employee networks

Cisco alumni organise informally through LinkedIn groups and regional networks rather than an official company programme. Cisco's repeated restructurings mean the alumni pool is large and well-connected across networking, security and enterprise infrastructure — worth reaching into before your internal directory access ends.

Cisco alumni network

Cisco alumni network and referral threads.

Alumni network · LinkedIn alumni search · opens a public LinkedIn people search · link checked 2026-08-26

Open

Communities beyond Cisco

Layoffs.fyi
Tech layoff tracker with a community list of laid-off talent open to work.
Visit
VetsinTech
Nonprofit connecting military veterans to tech training, employment and a national network.
Visit
Disability:IN
Business network for disability inclusion — employer directory and a talent programme.
Visit

All alumni networks and ERGs for Cisco

Questions to ask Cisco HR

1. Is my role eliminated, or is it being reorganised into a different team?
Why it matters: The answer changes whether redeployment is realistic and how a state agency will read your separation.
2. What is my exact separation date and my exact benefits-termination date?
Why it matters: They usually differ, and the second one starts your COBRA and Marketplace clocks.
3. What is the full severance formula, including how tenure is calculated?
Why it matters: Cisco has never published one; only your written agreement binds.
4. What happens to my unvested RSUs, and is any vesting accelerated?
Why it matters: With individually set separation dates, a near vest date is worth raising.
5. For sales: what is my earned commission, my quota credit and my accelerator treatment?
Why it matters: Three separate questions that are often answered as one and should not be.
6. If I joined through Splunk or another acquisition, which severance terms apply to me?
Why it matters: Acquisition agreements often preserve different terms for a period.
7. How long do I have to consider this, and what is the revocation period?
Why it matters: If you are 40 or older, OWBPA sets minimum review windows and a revocation right.
8. Has a WARN notice been filed for my worksite?
Why it matters: If one applies and was short, notice pay may be owed on top of severance.

Get the important answers in writing where you can.

Employee action plan

First 24 hours

→Do firstDownload your offer letter, any acquisition retention agreement, equity grant documents, commission plan and recent payslips before access ends.
→Do firstDo not sign on the spot — signing generally waives claims, and the review period exists for a reason.
→Do firstWrite down your separation date, benefits-end date and the deadline to accept, exactly as stated.
→Do firstIf you are on a visa, note your last day of employment and start the grace-period calculation from it.

First 7 days

→Check your state's WARN database for a filing covering your worksite.
→Do firstAsk in writing about RSU vesting, commission treatment and the benefits-termination date.
→Do firstIf you are 40 or older and this is a group programme, request the OWBPA disclosure listing the decisional unit.
→File for unemployment in the state where you performed the work.
→If you came in through an acquisition, find the agreement that governs your severance terms.

First 30 days

→Do firstChoose between COBRA and a Marketplace plan before the earliest deadline passes.
→Decide what to do with your 401(k) — compare leaving it in the plan, moving it to a new plan or IRA, or withdrawing, weighing fees, investment options, any loan offset and taxes — and check whether any outstanding loan is now due.
→Work the alumni network across networking, security and infrastructure while contacts are warm.
→If a clause looked wrong — particularly on commissions — have an employment attorney read it before the revocation window closes.

Related LayoffNext tools

Build My Layoff Plan Severance Pay Calculator Layoff Runway Calculator Final Paycheck & PTO Payout Calculator COBRA vs Marketplace Unemployment hub WARN Tracker H-1B 60-Day Countdown Alumni & ERG Directory Job Search After Layoff

Intel layoff guide Dell layoff guide Oracle layoff guide Microsoft layoff guide

Cisco layoffs — frequently asked questions

How many people did Cisco lay off in 2026?+

Cisco has not published a number. Its Q3 fiscal 2026 earnings release of 13 May 2026 quantifies the restructuring financially — up to $1 billion in pre-tax charges, about $450 million in Q4 FY2026 and the remainder in fiscal 2027 — but states no headcount. The widely reported figure of fewer than 4,000 roles, under 5% of the workforce, comes from reporting and the earnings call rather than the written release. [1],[3]

What severance does Cisco pay?+

Cisco has never published a formula. Its own release confirms only that the charge consists of severance and other one-time termination benefits. Reporting and employee accounts describe a tenure-based structure of roughly one to two weeks per year of service, plus career transition services for about three months through an external provider. Treat that as orientation and ask for your own figure in writing — terms vary by country and role. [1]

Which Cisco teams were most affected?+

Cisco named the areas it is investing in — silicon, optics, security and AI — rather than the areas it is cutting. Reporting places the reductions disproportionately in legacy switching and routing and in on-premises collaboration, as customers move to software-defined and cloud alternatives. Confirm your own organisation rather than relying on that pattern. [3],[1]

Has Cisco filed WARN notices for this round?+

LayoffNext's own WARN ingest holds no Cisco filings in its current window. That is a statement about site concentration rather than about scale — WARN is triggered by a mass layoff at a single worksite, and a global reduction spread thinly across many sites often does not reach the threshold anywhere. Check your own state's WARN database directly for your worksite. [1]

I joined Cisco through the Splunk acquisition — do the same terms apply?+

Not necessarily. Acquired employees often carry different severance terms, equity treatment and tenure calculations, because the acquisition agreement preserved them for a period. Establish which document governs yours — your original offer, an acquisition retention agreement, or Cisco's standard policy — before you compare your package with a colleague's. [2]

Sources and methodology

Every material figure on this page references a numbered source below. We prioritize company and SEC filings, official government and WARN data, and federal immigration data, followed by reputable reporting; anonymous posts are not used as a sole source for any material claim. Confidence labels describe source strength, not certainty for your situation: supported by company, sec, government, or multiple strong sources. (High); credible reporting exists but important details remain incomplete. (Medium); public evidence is incomplete or primarily secondary. (Limited).

[1] Cisco Reports Third Quarter Earnings (fiscal 2026) — restructuring plan, up to $1B in pre-tax charges Investor relations
Cisco Systems, Inc. (Investor Relations) · May 13, 2026 · Accessed August 26, 2026 · primary
Supports: Restructuring plan announced 13 May 2026, Estimated pre-tax charges of up to $1 billion, ~$450 million recognised in Q4 FY2026, remainder in fiscal 2027, Charges consist of severance and other one-time termination benefits and other costs, Stated purpose: invest in silicon, optics, security and AI, Q3 FY2026 revenue of $15.8 billion, Release contains no headcount figure
[2] Cisco Systems, Inc. Form 10-K for fiscal year 2025 (approximately 86,200 employees as of 26 July 2025) SEC filing
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission · September 1, 2025 · Accessed August 26, 2026 · primary
Supports: Employee headcount ~86,200, Corporate structure and acquired subsidiaries
[3] Cisco Q3 2026 earnings report — workforce reduction reported at fewer than 4,000 roles Reputable reporting
CNBC · May 13, 2026 · Accessed August 26, 2026 · secondary
Supports: Reported headcount reduction of fewer than 4,000 (<5% of workforce), Reported areas most affected, Context for the restructuring charge
[4] Cisco employees face a month of silence ahead of second layoff in 2024 Reputable reporting
TechCrunch · August 20, 2024 · Accessed August 26, 2026 · secondary
Supports: August 2024 restructuring, ~7% of workforce reported, Second reduction of 2024
[5] Cisco announces it is laying off thousands of workers (February 2024) Reputable reporting
Malay Mail / Reuters · February 15, 2024 · Accessed August 26, 2026 · secondary
Supports: February 2024 restructuring, ~5% of workforce reported

Report a correction

Believe something is inaccurate or outdated? Email support@layoffnext.com.

Methodology & standards

How we research · Editorial standards

Important disclaimer

This guide is an educational summary of publicly available information about Cisco and is not legal, financial, tax, immigration, benefits or employment advice. It is not affiliated with, authorized by, or endorsed by Cisco. Severance, benefits, equity, WARN coverage and legal rights vary by role, level, location, tenure, legal employer, agreement and applicable law, and companies change terms between rounds. Verify your specifics with HR, official notices, state agencies and qualified professionals. See our full disclaimer.

Deepak MiddhaFounder of LayoffNext

Deepak Middha is the founder of LayoffNext and a Chartered Accountant (ICAI, India). A U.S. immigrant with nearly 20 years of experience — and 17 years in hedge fund and private equity administration, including as Vice President of Fund Accounting at NAV Fund Administration Group and Associate Director of Private Equity and Real Estate at SS&C Technologies — he builds free, plain-language layoff tools and guides for employees, H-1B workers, and immigrant families.

Updated September 17, 2026

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