Finnish telecommunications giant Nokia has announced plans to cut between 9,000 and 14,000 jobs globally by the end of 2026 in an effort to reduce costs. This decision came after the company reported a 20% decline in sales during the third quarter, attributing the slump to decreased demand for 5G equipment, particularly in North America. Nokia aims to save between €800m and €1.2bn by 2026, citing the challenges posed by high inflation, rising interest rates, and reduced spending by its customers.

Nokia’s Strategic Shift: Cost-Cutting Amid 5G Market Uncertainties

CEO Pekka Lundmark highlighted the need for investments in networks improved by cloud computing and AI. However, due to uncertainties in market recovery, Nokia is opting for decisive cost-cutting measures. Initial reductions will save the company €400m in 2024 and €300m in 2025.

CEO Pekka expressed that decisions affecting employees are the toughest. He acknowledged Nokia’s talented workforce and ensured support for those impacted by the upcoming changes. Despite challenges, he remains optimistic about future opportunities for Nokia.

Nokia was once the world’s leading mobile phone manufacturer but struggled with the rise of smartphones like the iPhone and Samsung’s Galaxy. Post selling its handset division to Microsoft, which was later sold to HMD Global, Nokia pivoted to focus on telecoms equipment. In 2020, after the UK restricted Huawei from its 5G networks, Nokia became BT’s primary equipment provider.

Despite this, 5G equipment manufacturers have been facing challenges as operators in the US and EU reduce spending. This has affected not only Nokia but also its Swedish competitor, Ericsson, which also reported sales declines.

Kester Mann, an analyst at CCS Insight, commented on the surprising struggles of telecoms, stating that while the demand for services remains high, questions about the long-term future and relevance of operators continue to emerge. Furthermore, many tech companies, including Meta and Amazon, have been making redundancies due to economic challenges, although 80% of affected big tech workers found employment within three months.

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(Via)

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With layoffs becoming somewhat common across tech companies these days, Microsoft decided to take it a step further. The company is under fire from the general media and the public for hosting a private concert for its executive employees exactly one day before Microsoft announced its plan to lay off 10,000 employees. Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, popularly known as Sting, played at the concert. 

Microsoft has announced that there will be a reduction in the workforce through Q3 of 2023, affecting approximately 5% of the company’s employees. They attributed the layoff to post-pandemic regulation of expenses throughout the world. This news is quite unfortunate, but the timing is made more difficult by the fact that some of the company’s leadership team was in Switzerland the night before the announcement. The concert had a small gathering of around 50 employees, and it was hosted at the Davos ski resort on Tuesday evening. The whole ordeal was also made worse by the fact that there were earlier statements made by a Microsoft spokesperson that previously denied any rumours of layoffs. This caused confusion and concern among the employees.

In recent months, several major technology companies, such as Amazon have made strategic adjustments to their workforce in response to the current economic climate. Factors such as economic slowdown, high inflation, and rising interest rates have influenced these decisions to reduce their employee count. However, the timing of Microsoft’s concert definitely left a sour taste lingering in the air, that’s for sure.

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The CEO of Microsoft has recently announced plans of cutting up to 10,000 jobs across its various departments and firms that it owns. This decision extends to outside of its core areas of business as it shifts its focus. So here are all the details.

CEO Satya Nadella has stated that the current economic conditions have caused the American tech giant to make “hard choices.” Although, he further added that the company will also be shifting focus by investing in “strategic areas” in order to remain competitive in the market. While 10,000 people being laid off is a large figure, this apparently doesn’t even account for even 5 percent of Microsoft’s total workforce.

This news was revealed through a company wide memo in which Nadella said that reduced consumer spending because of the Coronavirus pandemic isn’t as extreme as before. However, many parts of the world are still facing economic recession at the moment. So, the layoffs are unavoidable to align its cost structures and projected revenue. Furthermore, despite 10,000 jobs being cut, the company will also continue to hire new resources as and when required.

Interestingly enough, Jason Schreier also reported on Microsoft having to downsize in its gaming division as well. This includes Xbox, Bethesda, and reportedly even 343 Industries as well. Meaning, that the job cuts are across the board and not specific to any department as of right now. So we can expect some of its other operations to also be impacted by the massive layoff.

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(Via: 1, 2)

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Companies around the world have been severely affected by the coronavirus outbreak and Samsung Electronics is no exception in this regard. Still, the firm expects to hire a record number of well-trained workers for its DS (device solutions) division in the first half of 2020 according to a report by Yonhap News Agency.

Samsung’s DS division includes the company’s memory chip, system LSI, and foundry businesses. This division is slated to hire experienced workers in 51-career fields but the total count is unknown for now. Normally, the South Korean tech giant employs experienced workers for these businesses on an occasional basis whenever there is a need for manpower. But this time around, the company might hire workers for the whole division. This means the firm will offer jobs at a record number since its inception.

As per the latest survey on South Korea‘s top 500 firms by sales with a workforce of 300 or more by Korea Economic Research Institute (KERI), one-fourth of those companies are expected to cut back on their hiring or either has no plans to recruit new workers at least in the first half of the year amidst current situation. According to insiders from the industry, Samsung wants to make use of this situation by creating a win-win scenario for both itself and the jobless people.

Samsung will be focussing more on producing fourth-generation 1z nanometer (nm) DRAM and seventh-generation V-NAND chipsets this year as per the company’s DS division chief Kim Ki-nam.

UP NEXT: Samsung pushes Work from Home policy on its Employees

(Source)

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Essential Inc. slowed down things following the launch of its first smartphone, the Essential PH-1. Two years after it announced the PH-1, it is yet to announce another phone.

The company seems to be back on track as it already shared photos of its upcoming new device codenamed Project GEM which is quite different from what we are used to seeing.

Prior to releasing details about its new smartphone, the official Essential Twitter account tweeted earlier this week that the company is recruiting for a number of positions in Bangalore, India. Yes, Essential has an office in India and its hiring.

We're looking for talented engineers and designers based in Bangalore, India to join our team.

View open positions here: https://t.co/EQI1o9ozNF pic.twitter.com/KWd2x9Cjva

— Essential (@essential) October 8, 2019

Essential says it is recruiting for talent to work on Android and Cloud technology. Those who get hired “will work closely with HQ in Palo Alto” to build and design future products and platforms.

The company says workers will get perks such as flexible time off, catered meals, and fresh fruit, in addition to a competitive salary and health benefits.

Below is a list of the openings at the Indian office:

• CloudOps Engineer
• Interaction Designer/UX Designer
• Linux Engineer
• Software Development in Test, Android
• Software Engineer, Android Framework
• Software Engineer, Applications
• Software Engineer, Back-End
• Software Engineer, C++
• Software Engineer, Speech Recognition/Machine Learning

All the positions are full-time and are located in Bangalore. Do check here for full details on the positions and their requirements.

This is the second time this year Essential is recruiting for multiple positions. Back in February, it put up listings for 21 positions, however, some were not full-time jobs unlike the ones in India.

UP NEXT: Essential PH-2 could be in works as Essential confirms working on a new device

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