Yesterday, Dell became the latest technology company to announce job losses, laying off 6,650 workers, or 5% of its workforce, as demand for its computers plummeted following the end of the pandemic.
It stated that it was taking “prudent measures in light of a difficult global economic environment”, but didn’t specify how much the redundancy program would cost. However, it did say that these “expenses would be realized at the end of 2023 financial year.
Jeff Clarke, the co-chief operating officer of Dell Technologies, was quoted as saying: “Market conditions continue erode, with uncertain future. We have not been able to take the necessary steps to avoid downturn impacts. These efforts allowed us to achieve several strong quarters consecutively. To prepare for the future, we must make further decisions.
Clarke stated that the company had cut back on travel, stopped hiring external employees, and cut down its spending on services outside of it. Clarke also wrote that they’d been through economic downturns before, and emerged stronger. We will be more competitive, more focused, and achieve a higher level of operational performance. We’ll be available when the market recovers.”
Michael Dell founded the company in 1984. The company produces computers and related products and sells IT services to large corporations such as IT management and server sales. It has approximately 133,000 employees in 180 locations, and 20 manufacturers in 20 locations all over the globe, including China and Taiwan.
Technology was an unrivalled success story in hospitality and travel. Lockdowns and the transition from working at home to work created a greater demand for digital goods. This has all changed since the world is opening up again. Dell reported that its third quarter revenue was $24.7 billion in November, a decrease of 6 percent. On March 2, it will release its full-year 2022 results.
As the economic climate has turned against them, household names like Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft have announced that they would be cutting thousands of jobs in recent months. According to Layoffs.fyi, more than 88,000 tech workers have lost their jobs this year. The number of layoffs was 159 766 last year.
The sales of new computers fell at last year’s end, according to Gartner figures. This was the biggest quarterly drop in computer shipments since Gartner began monitoring the market. In the fourth quarter of 2022, 65.3 million new computers were sold. This is a drop of 29 percent. Last year’s total of 286.2 million PCs were shipped, which is a 16% decrease from 2021. Mikako Kitagawa from Gartner, a Gartner analyst, stated that Europe’s demand “effectively stopped”,
The shares of Dell dropped by 3 percent, or $1.28 to close at $49.96 in New York last evening.