Chinese tech giant Xiaomi will undertake a campaign of layoffs that will affect “less than 10% of its workforce”, which at the end of September amounted to about 35,000 employees worldwide, local press reported.
According to information published by the Jiemian portal and cited by the Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post, Xiaomi will try to reduce its spending on personnel by about 15% with cuts in various departments of its segments of smartphones and internet services.
A company representative called the plan “routine optimization of personnel and organization,” a formula used to avoid intervention by authorities, which, under Chinese law, must authorize layoff programs affecting more than 20 jobs.
After embarking on a recruitment campaign in December last year, Xiaomi took the opposite path throughout this year due to the fall in its sales due to the decline in consumption, largely caused by the harsh confinements and restrictions applied by China within the framework of its zero-tolerance strategy against the coronavirus.
According to data from the specialized consultancy Canalys, sales of smartphones fell by 9% year-on-year in the third quarter, a trend that Xiaomi did not escape (-8%).
The Beijing-based company remains in third place among smartphone vendors globally, behind only South Korea’s Samsung and the US Apple.
Xiaomi shares fell 0.76% today in Hong Kong around 15.00 local time, where they have already yielded more than 4.5% this week and no less than 43.7% so far in 2022.
