The phrase ‘India growth story’ doesn’t quite sit well with the alarming rates of job cuts in recent times. This month, a national daily revealed that 23 techies, on average, lose their jobs every hour.
Recent data from a tech-focussed hiring firm TopHire indicated that approximately 100,000 employees have been given the pink slip in India in the past two years, far higher than publicly reported numbers.
Google announced a third round of job cuts, painting a bleak picture of India’s job market.
Now, Finnish telecom giant Nokia has joined the layoff parade. The firm has announced that it would cut its workforce by as many as 14,000 people after reporting lower-than-expected third-quarter profits.
According to reports, the telecommunications equipment maker’s sales dropped by 20% to 4.98 billion euros in the third quarter compared to 2022.
“In the third quarter, we saw an increased impact on our business from the macroeconomic challenges,” CEO Pekka Lundmark mentioned in a statement.
The company’s saving programme, focused on Mobile Networks, Cloud and Network Services and corporate functions, is expected to reduce the firm’s employees to as low as 72,000, bringing down costs by up to 1.2 billion euros ($1.14 billion) by 2026.
Nokia reported that its profits reached 133 million euros in the third quarter, a 69% drop from the same period a year ago.
“The earnings were much weaker than expected and the outlook is more uncertain. So it’s not looking that good in the short term for Nokia,” Atte Riikola, an analyst at equity analysis firm Inderes, told agencies.
“We saw some moderation in the pace of 5G deployment in India which meant the growth there was no longer enough to offset the slowdown in North America,” Lundmark said, adding that “there’s a possibility for a negative profit warning.”
