Dell is slashing 6,650 jobs, or about five per cent of its workforce, as it faces plunging demand for PCs and economic uncertainty, the company announced in a regulatory filing, seen by news site Bloomberg.
“In the coming days and weeks, you’ll begin to see a series of changes – some resets – across the organization to better structure us for the future, to better collaborate, reduce complexity, increase speed and to accelerate innovation.” said Dell’s co-chief operating officer, Jeff Clarke, in a blog post.
Employees impacted by these changes will hear from their leaders, according to Dell. The company also said it will support laid off employees as they transition to next opportunities, but did not specify how.
Dell’s layoffs add to the more than 48,000 jobs slashed by tech companies, including Microsoft, Google and Salesforce, since the beginning of this year.
The company has already rolled out cost-cutting moves such as a hiring pause, limits on travel, and reducing outside services spend, following a dramatic slump in the PC market, which accounts for 55 per cent of its revenue, according to industry analyst IDC.
In November last year, competitor HP also announced plans to cut 4,000 to 6,000 employees over the next three years.
Among major companies, Dell, however, faced the largest decline in PC sales in 2022, compared with the same period in 2021.
Dell said it will also implement changes to streamline operations, including aligning Regional Sales and Dell Technologies Select (DTS) teams to provide consistent support to customers, tighten feedback loops between customers, support and product teams by further supporting the company’s ISG and CSG segments, and shifting teams and resources around.
“Remember, we’ve navigated economic downturns before and we’ve emerged stronger,” wrote Clarke. “We’ll prevail as we always do, for our customers, partners and each other. We’ll be more competitive, more focused and find a new level of operational performance. We will be ready when the market rebounds.”