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October's job losses in the U.S. were nearly twice as high as a month earlier — the steepest for any October since 2003, data from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas showed.
The technology sector was the hardest hit, with 33,281 cuts, almost six times September's total.
Being laid off is an awful feeling — and it must feel bitterly ironic to work in a field that's developing the very technology making you redundant.
One person spared both redundancy fears and existential doubt is Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who just had a nearly $1 trillion pay package approved by Tesla shareholders.
To earn the full trillion, though, Musk has to meet a chain of performance targets, culminating in Tesla reaching an $8.5 trillion valuation.
Its market cap is currently $1.54 trillion — by contrast, the world's most valuable company now is Nvidia, which briefly hit a $5 trillion valuation last Wednesday.
After Thursday's slump in tech stocks, however, Nvidia's market cap has dipped to a "mere" $4.57 trillion.
Other tech companies, such as Microsoft , Broadcom and Palantir Technologies , also fell broadly over concerns that their stock prices are too high. Those moves dragged the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite down by 1.9%.
For most tech workers and investors, Thursday was another reminder of volatility's sting. For Elon Musk, it was just another day on the road to the stratosphere.