On Monday, February 6th, a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing revealed that the company plans to cut its workforce by 5%, leading to a total of around 6,650 employees being laid off.
Dell’s recent cutbacks reflect the plummeting demand for PCs and laptops worldwide. Industry research firm IDC reported a 28% decline in PC shipments globally during the fourth quarter of 2022.
During the same time span, Dell’s PC shipments experienced a staggering 37% reduction; Lenovo, HP, and Apple felt the repercussions as well with their respective shipment drop of 28%, 29%, and 2%.
In a memo to staff, Jeff Clarke, Dell’s Chief Operating Officer highlighted that the layoffs were necessitated in order to mitigate the impact of recessionary pressures. He further noted that measures instituted by Dell such as decreasing travel expenses, halting external hiring and cutting back on contractor services were no longer sufficient enough.
Regretfully, due to this shift, some of our staff will be parting ways with the company. We understand that it is a hard pill to swallow but we had no alternative – this was crucial for us to remain prosperous in the future.
On January 28th, 2022 Dell boasted 133,000 dedicated employees.
