Dell lays off 5 percent of staff due to disappointing PC market

Hardware maker Dell is going to lay off 5 percent of its staff. That equates to about 6650 people who are going to lose their jobs. The reason is that the market for PCs is shrinking and Dell doesn’t expect it to recover anytime soon.

After the layoffs, Dell still employs about 126,000 people, writes Bloomberg. Dell confirmed the message after Bloomberg saw an internal memo from the company. Dell had already tried to reduce costs by not hiring or reducing staff and by limiting travel expenses. Now that’s no longer enough, the company says.

The purpose of the layoffs is to cut costs. It is unknown what the consequences will be for current or future products from the manufacturer. The company says nothing about that. Dell also provides little context. That will probably happen with the upcoming quarterly figures at the beginning of March. After the round of layoffs, 33 percent fewer people work for the company than three years ago.

Dell is the latest in a long line of tech companies laying off people en masse. Almost all major tech companies have made major rounds of layoffs in recent months. Most gave the reason that since the end of the acute phase of the corona pandemic, the market has developed differently than they had expected. Dell shipped 37 percent fewer PCs last year than in the previous year, according to analyst firm IDC.

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