The Chinese giant Xiaomi has announced that it will lay off around 10% of its workforce. Over 3,000 jobs at stake.
Chinese giant Xiaomi has announced it will lay off around 10% of its workforce . The company called the redundancies a “process of optimizing the corporate structure”. According to the South China Morning Post newspaper, the decision was taken due to the decline in sales of the smartphone division and the consequent collapse of profits.
Xiaomi has more than 35,000 employees, of which 32,000 are operating in China. The bulk of the layoffs should involve employees who have recently joined the company and in particular those hired in December of last year.
The news comes a few days after the presentation of the new Xiaomi 13. During the third quarter of 2022, the number of smartphones shipped worldwide fell by 9% on an annual basis, to 297.8 million units. In China the figure is even lower: -11% on an annual basis, for a total of 70 million units shipped. It would be at least partly the fault of the frequent lockdowns imposed by the ‘zero covid’ bankruptcy policy.
Xiaomi is the fifth Chinese brand by number of sales and during the third quarter of 2022 it saw its revenues fall by 9.7% on an annual basis (70.47 billion yuan, about 10 billion euros), while profits collapsed by 59.1%.
The layoffs should involve over 3 thousand employees and part of the redundancies should also affect Xiaomi’s international offices.
- Chinese smartphone giant Xiaomi’s ‘personnel optimization’ to affect 10 per cent of its workforce amid weak consumer spending (scmp.com)