The year 2014 was pretty bad for several IT employees. Many IT companies laid off their employees in this year. The reasons for reducing the workforce for these companies were different. However, it was surprising that many of these organizations decided to make job cuts across the globe in the same year. Here is a list of 8 such companies where major job cuts were done.
1. Microsoft:
This became the biggest news of 2014 when Microsoft announced 18,000-employee layoff in July 2014. This was the largest number of layoffs in the history of Microsoft, as nearly 14% of the Microsoft’s staff lost its job. The job cuts took place in batches and at various offices of Microsoft spread across the globe. CEO Satya Nadella had mentioned in a public email that this layoff was needed to make the company ‘more agile and move faster’.
2. IBM:
IBM was yet another IT giant that laid of its several employees. The number was more than half of the number of employees Microsoft laid off, i.e. 9,400 employees from many offices of IBM across the globe. Nearly 6,000 to 8,000 employees were laid off from office outside the U.S. However, IBM also laid off more than 3,300 employees also in the U.S. and Canada. IBM’s drop in sales in the first quarter is to be blamed for this huge workforce reduction.
3. Yahoo:
Everyone was surprised when the news of layoffs came from Yahoo. Yahoo India laid off nearly 300 engineers from its 800-odd engineers in September and October 2014. Some employees were also asked to relocate to Sunnyvale, California. This relocation was a part of restructuring of Yahoo, which turned into job cuts in Yahoo, Bangalore.
4. CISCO:
Want to publish your own articles on DistilINFO Publications?
Send us an email, we will get in touch with you.
The year 2014 was not good for several CISCO employees also. CISCO announced that about 8% of its staff, i.e. up to 6,000 employees would be laid off in 2014. The company mentioned cost saving to be the reason for the job cuts. The layoffs mainly took place in the cloud services, cyber security, software and data center businesses.
5. HP:
HP probably tops the list of maximum number of layoffs in the year 2014. HP announced a total of 27,000 job cuts from 2012, which were going to end in October 2014. However, by June 2014, HP doubled the number of layoffs, making it 45,000 to 50,000 employees by the end of fiscal 2015. By April 2014, HP had laid off nearly 31,400 employees. Too much of headcount is considered to be the reason for major job cuts in HP worldwide.
6. Intel:
Intel also joined the bandwagon of job cuts. The chipmaker company revealed its plans in Jan 2014 of laying off nearly 5000 employees across the world. The company reasoned out the job cuts as its response to ‘evolving market trends’.
7. Juniper Networks
When CISCO was planning to lay off several of its employees, its major competitor Juniper Networks was also not behind in job cuts. However, the reason for workforce reduction was underperformance of this networking products development and marketing company. The company laid off its 570 workers from across the globe, which is nearly 6% of its total staff.
8. TCS
By the end of 2014, TCS India also issued pink slips to its employees. The job cuts took place in many locations of TCS across India. From a particular location of the TCS regional office (Kakkanad in Ernakulam), approximately 500 employees were laid off. TCS has plans to lay off nearly 25,000 to 30,000 employees in coming months.
Image source:
Microsoft: WikiMedia
IBM: WikiMedia
Yahoo: Yahoo
CISCO: WikiMedia
HP: WikiMedia
Intel: WikiMedia
Juniper Networks: WikiMedia
TCS: TCS