February 7, 2023: On Monday, Dell announced the plans to remove 5% of its workforce, or 6,650 employees, an SEC filing stated.

The slashes at Dell come as a requirement for PCs and laptops has decreased globally. According to industry analysts at IDC, global shipments of PCs decreased 28% year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2022. Computer shipments at Dell were come down 37% for a similar period, while competitors Lenovo, HP and Apple decreased 28%, 29%, and 2% each.

On Tuesday, shares of Dell’s increased 2% in premarket trading.

In the employee memos, Jeff Clarke, a co-chief working officer at Dell, stated that the cutting was made to “stay ahead of downturn impacts. He said the changes Dell had implemented, such as limiting travel, pausing external hiring and reducing outside services spending, needed to be revised.

“Unfortunately, with changes like this, some team members will be leaving the company,” Clarke stated. “There are no tougher talks, but one we had to create for our long-term health and success,” he further said.

As of January 28 in the previous year, Dell had 133,000 total employees, the company filing with the SEC stated.

In the employee memo, Clarke said Dell had navigated economic downturns before and “emerged stronger” as an outcome.

“We are ready when the market rebounds,” he further said.

The firm’s layoffs announcement marks the recent round of job slashes in the tech industry, as PayPal announced the idea to slash 2,000 jobs Tuesday. This month, Google announced ideas to lay off over 12,000 workers, Microsoft plans to slash 10,000 employees, and Salesforce stated the plans to lay off 7,000 workers.