Cisco latest firm to announce job cuts; 2024 tech layoff tally hits 35,000

The United States technology giant Cisco Systems joined the queue of its peers in announcing thousands of job cuts as part of its major restructuring bid. The firm, which is the largest maker of computer networking equipment, said on Wednesday that it will lose about 5 per cent or 4,000 employees of its global workforce.

The restructuring will cost about $500 million, Cisco noted.

As of 2023, Cisco had about 85,000 employees. The development followed after Cisco encountered a sales growth slowdown amid lower technology spending. The company said that it’s been hit by a temporary “pause” in orders from customers who are busy installing equipment they’ve already acquired.

Cisco lowers revenue expectations
Cisco said it aims to reduce sales volatility by offering more networking services and focusing on subscription revenue. As part of this plan, the company is acquiring data-crunching software maker Splunk for $28 billion, a deal announced in September.

The company also lowered its annual revenue expectations at $51.5 billion from earlier $52.5 billion.
35,000 job cuts across tech this year

Cisco’s move adds to total tech firms’ layoff tally at about 35,000 in 2024 so far, according to Layoffs.fyi, which tracks tech job cuts.

Bengaluru-based Flipkart was the first company this year to announce job cuts exceeding 1,000 mark. The e-commerce giant laid off about 5 per cent or nearly 1,100 of its global workforce in the first half of January.

Amazon subsidiary Twitch, Meta-owned Instagram, Google, YouTube, TikTok are among other popular tech companies to have executed job cuts in 2024, Layoffs.fyi reported.

According to the data, German software major SAP tops the list at most layoffs, affecting 8,000 positions. Notably, this data corresponds to the layoffs reported by the companies as many of them, including Google and Amazon, did not disclose their job cut figures.