U.S. company Dell, known as a major manufacturer of personal computers, announced the layoff of about 6,650 employees, Bloomberg reported. The layoffs will bring the company’s headcount to its lowest in six years. Previous cost-cutting measures, including a hiring freeze and travel restrictions, are no longer enough, a Dell spokesman said.
Dell Technologies Inc. is cutting about 6,650 positions as demand for personal computers declines and is trailing a string of technology companies that have announced thousands of job cuts, Bloomberg reported.
The cuts represent about 5 percent of Dell’s total workforce, the company said in an official statement earlier this week. Dell is under pressure from market conditions that “continue to erode and their future is uncertain,” co-CEO Jeff Clark wrote in a memo seen by Bloomberg.
Dell shares fell 1.1 percent in early trading in New York. After a boom in personal computers during the pandemic era, Dell and other hardware makers are now facing a drop in demand. Industry analyst IDC said preliminary data showed that personal computer shipments fell sharply in the fourth quarter of 2022. According to IDC, among the big companies, Dell saw the biggest decline, 37% compared to the same period in 2021. Dell gets about 55% of its revenue from personal computers.
After the cuts, Dell, based in Round Rock, Texas, will have its lowest headcount in six years, with about 39,000 fewer employees than in January 2020. Only about one-third of the company’s employees work in the United States, according to a March 2022 report.