South Korea-based Samsung Electronics is set to slash jobs of 30 percent of its overseas staff at some divisions, Reuters news report said.
Samsung, the top maker of smartphones, TVs and memory chips, has asked subsidiaries to reduce sales and marketing staff by about 15 percent and the administrative staff by up to 30 percent.
Samsung in a statement said workforce adjustments conducted at some overseas operations were routine, and aimed at improving efficiency. It said there are no specific targets for the plans, adding that they are not impacting its production staff.
Samsung aims to implement the plan by the end of this year and would impact jobs across the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa. It is not clear the savings from the job cut at Samsung units.
Samsung has reported net profit of KRW 9.84 trillion and revenue of KRW of 74.07 trillion during the second-quarter of 2024. The above chart indicates EBITDA margin of 27 percent in Q2 2024, 22 percent in Q1 2024 and 16 percent in Q2 2023.
Samsung has 267,800 employees at the end of 2023. Samsung has 147,000 employees in overseas nations, according to its latest sustainability report. This indicates around 44,000 employees will be removed. Samsung did not confirm the number of employees who will be removed from the job.
Manufacturing and development accounted for most of those jobs and sales and marketing staff was around 25,100, while 27,800 people worked in other areas.
Samsung’s India operation has started offering severance packages to some mid-level employees who have left in recent weeks.
The number of employees who may need to leave the India unit could reach 1,000. Samsung employs some 25,000 people in India.
In China, Samsung has notified its staff about the job cuts that are expected to affect about 30 percent of its employees at its sales operation.
Samsung would find it difficult to lay off workers in South Korea because it was a politically sensitive issue. A South Korean workers’ union at Samsung Electronics recently went on strike for several days, demanding higher wages and benefits.
