Xiaomi began layoffs to reduce 10 percent of its workforce

Xiaomi has started mass layoffs this week and plans to reduce its workforce by 10 percent.

The Chinese company said in an official statement on Tuesday that it had “recently implemented regular personnel optimization and organizational simplification with the affected parties totaling less than 10 percent of the total workforce.”

According to the company’s statistics, the total number of Xiaomi employees reached 35,314 as of September 30. Financial results of the third quarter of this yearWith a large majority of these workers (32,609) based in mainland China, followed by India and Indonesia.

The news of the dismissal was first reported by the organization South China Morning Post, citing social media posts by affected workers as well as local Chinese media. The layoffs at Xiaomi come as China grapples with the economic fallout from years of COVID-19 restrictions, as well as a slowdown in global demand for smartphones. In November, Xiaomi posted a nearly 10% drop in third-quarter revenue, with smartphone sales down 11% year-over-year. Revenue from smartphones accounts for approximately 60% of the company’s total sales.

Xiaomi is one of the largest smartphone manufacturers in the world. According to Statista, the Beijing-based company is estimated to have sold more than 190 million smartphones in 2021, an increase of 45 million units compared to the previous year.

The layoffs at Xiaomi follow a wave of layoffs at a number of tech giants that saw large-scale layoffs at companies including Meta, Twitter and Amazon.