Like many of the other large tech companies, Dell is set to cut thousands of jobs as demand for its products wilts following the pandemic.
As Bloomberg reports, Dell's Co-Chief Operating Officer Jeff Clarke wrote a memo to employees explaining how the company will be eliminating around 5% of its 133,000-strong workforce, which equates to roughly 6,650 jobs.
The job cuts are a reaction to a big slowdown in demand for personal computers, with Dell experiencing a 37% drop in PC shipments during the fourth quarter of 2022 when compared to the same period in 2021, according to industry analyst IDC. With the current global economic situation, sales and demand are unlikely to improve this year.
Dell had already implemented a hiring freeze and cut its costs by limiting employee travel, but the memo explains that greater efficiency is now required. The large number of job losses will see some departments within the company reorganizing, but this isn't a totally new situation for Dell to deal with. In the memo Clarke said, "We’ve navigated economic downturns before and we’ve emerged stronger ... We will be ready when the market rebounds."
Meanwhile, Google is cutting 12,000 jobs around the world, Amazon is set to reduce its headcount by 18,000 employees, Meta announced it was laying off more than 11,000 people, and has since revealed its VR division lost $13.7 billion last year.