Tech layoffs: Ericsson fires 8,500 people months after promising 2,000 jobs in India

Late last year, leading 5G equipment provider Ericsson announced that it will generate 2,000 jobs in India, through its push for powering high speed internet. It mapped out the plan when big tech firms including Google and Cisco had already fired lakhs of people globally. Now Ericsson has also been hit by the layoff wave, and is slashing its global workforce by 8,500 employees, after kicking off job cuts from Sweden.

The firm setting up 5G infrastructure for top Indian telcos Reliance Jio and Airtel, has already sacked 1,200 people from its staff in Sweden. The firm has cited changing economic conditions for the layoff, which is the biggest to hit the telecom sector so far. The reduction of the workforce will be in line with local practices of each country.

The company announced the layoff in a memo to employees, a month after its earnings missed expectations. It also predicted that the earnings for the first quarter of FY24 will be lower than last year, while cost cutting measures will only start changing things from the second quarter.

Ericsson's layoff affecting 8 per cent of its total workforce, makes it part of a wave that has hit almost all tech majors with the exception of Apple, which has already started firing third party contractors.