Dell Joins the Layoff Spree, Plans to Slash Over 6,600 Jobs

In an effort to address plummeting demand for personal computers, Dell Technologies Inc. will eliminate about 6,650 jobs – about 5% of its global workforce, according to a company spokesperson.

The company is experiencing market conditions that “continue to erode with an uncertain future,” Co-Chief Operating Officer Jeff Clarke stated in a memo viewed by Bloomberg. The headcount for Dell, after going through with the layoffs, will be its lowest in at least six years at 1,26,300, the news agency reported.

The company generates almost 55% of its revenue from PCs. After a pandemic-era PC boom, hardware makers – including Dell – started experiencing significant drops in demand. Among major companies, Dell saw a noteworthy fall in its personal computer shipments in the fourth quarter last year – 37% compared with the same period in 2021.

Earlier cost-cutting measures, such as limits on travel and a pause on hiring, were no longer sufficient, Clarke told workers.

Overall, it seems that the tech industry is currently going through a rough patch as several big names have opted for mass layoffs citing “market conditions”. Companies like Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta – which were once considered one of the safest places to work – have also joined the layoff spree – together firing over 50,000 employees across the world in recent months.

A number of Dell’s peers and competitors, such as IBM, Cisco, and HP, have also been compelled by the unstable market conditions to opt for cost-cutting measures. While HP announced almost 6,000 job cuts in November, Cisco and IBM each said they would eliminate about 4,000 workers.

According to consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, the tech sector announced 97,171 job cuts last year, up 649% compared with the previous year.