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July 31, 2012

RIM Looking at Big Layoffs in August

Things aren’t looking so hot for RIM employees, as approximately 3,000 employees are expecting pink slips.

Employees facing the deepest cuts are in customer service, human resources, marketing, non-enterprise sales and RIM's Global Repair Services, the report said. Sources close to RIM told Cantech Letter that the company wants to complete the layoffs before the end of August.

In June 2012, Research in Motion (RIM) reported the worst quarter in company history, so cuts were imminent. Those involved with working on the BlackBerry 10 operating system and anyone in enterprise sales are apparently "safe" from the cuts. RIM hopes to complete its staff reductions by the end of its second quarter on August 31.

RIM joins other key players in the tech space when it comes to the largest layoffs. In technology, layoffs have surged to a three-year high.

Various computer, electronics, and telecommunications firms announced a combined 51,529 job cuts in the last six months – a 260-percent increase from the 14,308 announced during the same period last year, according to a report by human resources consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.

Computer giant Hewlett-Packard announced in the first quarter of the year that it planned to lay off 30,000 workers, tipping the scales quite severely in the computer industry alone.

“Hewlett-Packard could make the difficult decision of announcing [a workforce reduction],” Brian Marshall, an analyst at ISI Group, wrote in a research note earlier this month. “[This] would enable investments in strategic, higher growth areas.”

NEC kicked off 2012 by announcing it would cut 10,000 workers, including 3,000 outside of Japan, while forecasting a $1.3 billion loss in the fiscal year ended in March. The company's smartphone business has suffered from incursions by other companies into the Japanese market, while NEC has also continued to suffer from flood-ruined plants in Thailand.

T-Mobile announced in March that call center consolidation would cost 1,900 workers their jobs. One AT&T official blamed the FCC's decision not to OK the AT&T/T-Mobile merger for the T-Mobile layoffs. 


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Edited by Braden Becker


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