Another business giant in the world announces massive layoffs: does it affect Colombia?

US industrial conglomerate 3M, which produces medical equipment, abrasive rollers and so forth, announced on Tuesday—January 24—that it was preparing for a scenario of economic hardship and plans to lay off 2,500 people worldwide. Was planning

The company explained in a press release that it already had to manage “inflation” in 2022.global conflicts and an economic downturn” and have taken measures accordingly, such as selling their products for food security.

Nevertheless, the firm’s executive director, Mike Roman, indicated that “we expect macroeconomic challenges to persist into 2023” and that “based on what we’re seeing with our clients, we expect are planning to eliminate around 2,500 production positions across the world, a decision necessary to align itself with production volumes”.

At the end of 2021, The company employed approximately 95,000 workers. In the fourth quarter alone, 3M’s sales fell 6% to $8.1 billion.

As such, 3M joins a streak of massive layoffs, of which US carmaker Ford is already part, which will cut 3,200 jobs in Germany, particularly in administration and design, a union spokesman said. told AFP this week.German IG Metall.

These deletions will be carried out “mainly at the Colonia plant”. (West) But the American conglomerate’s “in other plants in Germany” indicated the union source after a meeting between the unions and the company management.

The announcement comes as fears of a relocation of auto industries to Europe grow after Washington imposed huge subsidies to benefit electric vehicles made in the United States.

“We are extremely concerned about the future of the German development divisions and the future of Ford’s German plants,” the union said in a statement released later.

deletion of posts They will affect the “product development” department of the Cologne plant, where “2,500 to 3,800 employees will have to leave the company,” IG Metall said.

Tech giants are no strangers to this reality

A wave of layoff plans since last summer has ravaged tech giants, such as the leader of audio platform Spotify, which announced last Monday it would cut 6% of its workforce.

Spotify, the world leader in audio platforms, announced on Monday that it would cut 6% of its workforce, That’s about 600 jobs, following a wave of layoffs among the technology giants.

Although Spotify has sometimes been profitable, the company has been loss-making for several years, despite its lightning-fast growth in subscriber numbers and gains over its competitors such as Apple Music. Spotify’s announcement, which will release its annual results on January 31, follows a series of layoff plans announced by big tech conglomerates in recent weeks.

This includes large companies such as Google’s parent company Alphabet, which will eliminate around 12,000 jobs worldwide, a little more than 6% of its approximately 187,000 jobs, or US computer giant Microsoft, which is facing economic uncertainty and change. Alleges in customer priorities, announced on January 18 that It will lay off some 10,000 employees by the end of March, which is less than 5% of its 221,000 employees.

On the other hand, electronic commerce giant Amazon announced on January 5 that it would cut “slightly more than 18,000” jobs worldwide, through a layoff plan that primarily targets warehouses managed by the group and its human resources department. Will affect Meanwhile, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, announced the elimination of 11,000 jobs in November, ie 13% of its workforce.

Let’s not forget that after Elon Musk bought Twitter, In early November 2022, the social network launched a drastic reduction plan, affecting half of its 7,500 employees. Finally, there is the case of firm Snap, whose CEO Evan Spiegel announced a restructuring plan in August 2022 to cut nearly 20% of its workforce, or more than 1,200 employees.

Snapchat – which has a growing number of users – is in a precarious position as it generates less and less income. The group has never managed to make an annual net profit.

*With inputs from AFP.