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File photo of a Dell office building in San Jose, California.
# tech layoffs
US tech giant Dell to cut 5% of its global workforce, around 6,650 employees
The computer firm employs over 5,000 people in Ireland.
US COMPUTER FIRM Dell Technologies has said it will lay off 5% of its global workforce, or around 6,650 employees, the latest casualties of a job-slashing wave hitting the tech sector.
The company has operated in Ireland for over 30 years and employs over 5,000 people across its bases in Dublin, Limerick and Cork. It is not yet clear what impact the cuts will have on its Irish employees.
The layoffs follow similar steps by tech giants Microsoft, Facebook owner Meta, Google-parent Alphabet, Amazon and Twitter as the industry girds for economic downturn.
They also come after a major hiring spree at the height of the coronavirus pandemic when companies scrambled to meet demand as people went online for work, school and entertainment.
But in a memo released today, Dell Technologies vice chair Jeff Clarke said “market conditions continue to erode with an uncertain future”.
“The steps we’ve taken to stay ahead of downturn impacts – which enabled several strong quarters in a row – are no longer enough,” Clarke said.
Dell, based at Round Rock in Texas, had 133,000 employees at the start of last year with nearly a third of them in the United States.
Clarke said the company now has to make “additional decisions to prepare for the road ahead.”
He warned of coming changes for the firm’s global sales and services segments, adding that “unfortunately, with changes like this, some members of our team will be leaving the company.”
“There is no tougher decision, but one we had to make for our long-term health and success,” he added.
In a statement to The Journal, a spokesperson for Dell said: “We continuously evaluate operations to ensure the right structure is in place to provide the best value and support to partners and customers. This is part of our regular course of business.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Trade, Enterprise and Employment told The Journal that Minister Simon Coveney “has not received a collective redundancy notification in relation to potential redundancies at Dell”.
Dell’s revenue fell 6% in the third quarter of its 2023 fiscal year, according to results released in late November.
Product sales, such as of desktops, laptops and workstations, which represent the bulk of the group’s business activity, fell by 10%.
The group’s executives pointed to the decline in demand for personal computers as people in the United States and around the world contend with high inflation and rising interest rates.
But the company has navigated economic downturns before and “emerged stronger” from them, Clarke stressed in the memo.
He added that Dell will “be ready when the market rebounds.”
According to the specialist site Layoffs.fyi, just over 88,000 tech employees have lost their jobs since the beginning of January worldwide, not counting Dell’s announcement today.
