Panasonic lays off 10,000 employees!

Japanese electronics giant Panasonic Holdings has decided to cut its global workforce by 10,000 people, with 5,000 jobs to be eliminated in Japan and 5,000 overseas. The company says the layoffs will affect about 4% of the global workforce. The decision is aimed at reducing costs, increasing operational efficiency and improving profit margins. Panasonic believes the restructuring will lead to a profit improvement of $1 billion by March 2027 and $2.1 billion by March 2029.

According to a Reuters report, Panasonic says the layoffs will take place between now and March 2026. The company has said the layoffs will mostly be from sales and indirect operations, including merging sites, closing loss-making businesses and voluntary retirement schemes for some employees. The process will be completed according to local labor laws in all countries.

Panasonic CEO Yuki Kusumi has said that he will give up 40% of his salary. Reports suggest that in an interview to Japan’s Nikkei newspaper, he said that “if we want to remain at the forefront of the industry, then these steps are necessary.” Panasonic clarified in a statement that their focus is now on creating an organization where the productivity of every employee is high.

Through this restructuring, Panasonic will also work on closing loss-making businesses, merging duplicate departments and optimizing IT investments.

Panasonic is now focusing its resources on high-growth areas such as artificial intelligence, biometrics (such as face recognition systems) and energy storage. The company is also working on facial recognition technology for Expo 2025 Osaka.

The company believes that this restructuring will yield a profit of about $1 billion, of which $483 million will come from job cuts alone. However, Panasonic also said that these estimates are tentative and the actual figures will depend on the number of employees and other factors.