More people in the tech industry have been hit by layoffs today. This time, the company announcing cuts in its workforce is Dell. The PC company announced in an SEC filing (via CNBC) that it will lay off 6,650 workers. That"s about 5 percent of Dell"s total workforce.
The SEC filing included an all-team email sent by Dell"s co-COO Jeff Clarke. He stated that efforts to cut back on spending at Dell, including a hiring freeze and limiting travel, have not been enough and that "market conditions continue to erode with an uncertain future". He said of the layoffs, "There is no tougher decision, but one we had to make for our long-term health and success.”
The new Dell layoffs are part of the overall downward trend in PC sales. IDC reported in January that shipments of PCs worldwide in the fourth quarter of 2022 were down 28.1 percent from the same period in 2021. The same report added that Dell, the third largest PC maker, saw its year-over-year sales plummet 37.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2022.
Dell"s move to lay off 5 percent of its workforce is in tune with all of the other tech layoffs that have been announced in the past few months. Google and Spotify have both announced headcount reductions of 6 percent, and Microsoft also announced mass layoffs a few weeks ago that affected less than 5 percent of its workforce.