Nokia to terminate up to 14,000 jobs

Nokia’s financial struggles has meant it will axe between 9,000 and 14,000 jobs by 2026 to cut costs.

Nokia will axe up to 14,000 jobs in an effort to cut ongoing costs.

The Finnish tech company announced that between 9,000 and 14,000 of their staff would be let go by the end of 2026, which comes after an estimated 20 percent drop in sales between July and September for the telecoms conglomerate.

In a statement, chief executive Pekka Ludmark said: “Given the uncertain timing of the market recovery, we are now taking decisive action.”

The company said it needed to “act quickly” by cutting expenditure by €400million next year, and then a further €300million in 2025.

Nokia admitted the cuts had been a “difficult business decision” but were a “necessary step to adjust to market uncertainty and protect our long-term profitability and competitiveness.”

A spokesperson for the tech giant added: “We have immensely talented people at Nokia and we will support everyone that is affected by the process.

“We are now beginning the process of consultation on initial reductions.”

They also emphasised that the exact details of the job losses “will be decided only after careful consideration, and will depend on the evolution of end market demand.”

Nokia has over 86,000 employees globally, but has axed thousands of jobs since the company began to experience financial struggle in 2015.

The company was once the biggest phone manufacturer in the world, but the introduction of the game-changing iPhone from Apple from 2007, and the following smartphone boom, left Nokia playing catch-up with the competition.

The company partnered with Microsoft in 2010 to offer customers a smartphone that ran a handset version of Windows, though after only achieving a global market share of just 2%, the two companies ended their partnership in 2015.

After political tensions rose between the west and China, which resulted in Chinese tech conglomerate Huaewei being banned from the UK’s 5G networks, Nokia took on the role to supply the country with the new technology.

However, suppliers struggled to make the equipment, plus a general decline in governmental spending on 5G, has meant that the company has not found the industry as profitable as it was hoping it would be.