January is supposed to be a month full of new starts and potential, in which we try to embrace resolutions or set out our plans for the year ahead.

But in the tech sector, it’s become something of an ominous month – the start of layoff season. January 2026 has been no different, with Amazon announcing 16,000 jobs cut in a plan that could see up to 30,000 cut by the end of May according to Reuters.

Earlier in the month, Dell made waves at CES 2026 with the news that it’s reviving the XPS laptop line, just one year on from its announcement that the brand would be deprecated. What can we make of the job cuts and of Dell's reversal?

In this episode, Rory welcomes back Ross Kelly, ITPro's news and analysis editor, to explore some of January's biggest stories.

Read more:

1. Amazon is cutting 14,000 roles in a bid to ‘operate like the world's largest startup’
2. ‘Lean into it’: Amazon CEO Andy Jassy thinks enterprises need to embrace AI to avoid being left behind – even if that means fewer jobs in the future
3. Fresh Microsoft layoffs hit software engineering roles, documents show
4. Return of the XPS: Dell resurrects iconic brand at CES after customer demand
5. Dell kills off XPS and other brands for PC simplicity