Here are some of the firms that have recently announced job cuts: <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
ExxonMobil<\/p>\n
The Texan oil company plans to cut up to 500 Singapore<\/a> jobs by end-2027 as it revamps its local operations. The move, announced on Oct 1, would trim its 3,500-strong Singapore staff force by around 10 to 15 per cent.\u00a0<\/p>\n The company said on Tuesday that it planned to cut 2,000 jobs across global operations<\/a> as part of its long-term restructuring plan to consolidate smaller offices into regional hubs.\u00a0<\/p>\n This followed a Monday announcement that Calgary-based Imperial Oil \u2013 in which ExxonMobil holds an almost 70 per cent stake \u2013 aims to reduce its headcount by 20 per cent.\u00a0<\/p>\n BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n Other major oil companies like Chevron, ConocoPhillips and BP have unveiled job cuts in recent months, as crude prices plunged amid higher supply from Opec and its allies.\u00a0<\/p>\n We. Communications <\/p>\n The public relations firm We. Communications recently retrenched 7 per cent of its Singapore staff<\/a> for whom the final day of employment was Sep 25.\u00a0<\/p>\n It laid off workers from a range of departments and positions \u2013 from entry level to director roles \u2013 were cut. The majority were new joiners with under two years\u2019 service there; one was reportedly hired for under a month.\u00a0<\/p>\n SEE ALSO<\/p>\n The affected staff received severance pay, but the details were not disclosed. In an internal e-mail seen by The Business Times, the company said that business changes over the past year had created budget gaps that necessitated the layoffs. It cited downsized client budgets, rising competition and a transition towards in-house public relations, as reasons for the cuts.\u00a0<\/p>\n The agency\u2019s long-time client Microsoft cut around 15,000 staff this year. The tech giant announced 9,000 worldwide job cuts in July, without disclosing whether Singapore would be affected.\u00a0<\/p>\n We. Communications has also temporarily halted salary reviews, bonuses and some employee benefits across all levels until June 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n Mediacorp <\/p>\n Mediacorp on Sep 1 announced that it was laying off 93 staff<\/a>, or slightly over 3 per cent of its workforce.\u00a0<\/p>\n Without specifying what roles were affected, the broadcaster said the organisation-wide job cuts were part of its efforts to keep pace with the evolving media landscape amid economic and commercial uncertainty.\u00a0<\/p>\n The affected workers were given until the end of September to find other roles in the company. Those unable to do so would get a severance payment of one month for each year of service, capped at 25 months or S$250,000, depending on experience, salary and seniority.<\/p>\n Dentsu <\/p>\n Dentsu plans to eliminate 3,400 jobs<\/a> in markets beyond Japan \u2013 around 8 per cent of its regional headcount \u2013 after recording second-quarter operating losses.\u00a0<\/p>\n The company said on Aug 14 that the layoffs, which focus on headquarters and back-office roles, will help streamline operations without compromising its growth potential or competitiveness.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Japanese advertising firm clocked a 62 billion yen (S$542 million) operating loss for the quarter ended June. It has revised its full-year forecasts and now expects an operating loss of 3.5 billion yen for the year, compared with its earlier prediction of a 66 billion yen operating profit.<\/p>\n ZF Group<\/p>\n German auto supplier ZF Friedrichshafen said on Oct 1 that it will retrench around a quarter of its staff,<\/a> or around 7,600 people, from its powertrain technology unit by 2030.\u00a0<\/p>\n This comes under a restructuring agreement with its works council and labour union, which includes options for early retirement, severance packages and a pledge to avoid forced redundancies.\u00a0<\/p>\n These layoffs are part of the firm\u2019s larger plan to eliminate 14,000 roles in Germany, with the auto industry beleaguered by weak electric vehicle demand and global trade tensions.\u00a0<\/p>\n Bosch <\/p>\n Bosch will axe some 13,000 jobs<\/a> across various locations in Germany until the end of 2030, the auto supplier announced on Sep 25.\u00a0<\/p>\n The planned layoffs are part of cost-cutting measures to help it cope with harsh market conditions that have saddled it with an annual cost gap of 2.5 billion euros (S$3.77 billion).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n It noted that lower demand has led to significant overcapacity in administration and sales as well as in development and production.<\/p>\n Lufthansa <\/p>\n The German airline on Sep 29 said it would slash 4,000 administrative jobs by 2030<\/a>, its steepest cut since the Covid pandemic.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Shares of Europe\u2019s largest airline group rose 2 per cent after it announced the move, which comes as it seeks higher profits through improved efficiency, with digitalisation and automation.\u00a0<\/p>\n The company is embarking on a turnaround programme unveiled last year and aiming to improve its core airline.\u00a0<\/p>\n In recent years, Lufthansa battled labour challenges and struggled to cut costs and pursue growth. It issued two profit warnings in 2024 and abandoned plans to hit its target of an 8 per cent operating margin that year.\u00a0<\/p>\n Volvo <\/p>\n Volvo Cars\u2019 closure of its satellite research and development office in Singapore, Volvo Tech Hub, affected 14 staff employed there.\u00a0<\/p>\n On Sep 26<\/a>, the Swedish automaker cited a challenging environment for the automotive industry as part of the reason behind the office\u2019s closure. <\/p>\n It did not address queries on the exact date the hub was shuttered, and whether retrenched staff were reassigned to other roles in the company.\u00a0<\/p>\n SoftBank <\/p>\n SoftBank Group will cut close to 20 per cent<\/a> of its Vision Fund team globally, marking the third tranche of layoffs at its flagship fund since 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n Unlike previous retrenchment rounds that came as the firm faced losses, the latest cuts were issued after the fund in August recorded its strongest quarterly performance since June 2021. <\/p>\n The move comes as the Japanese investment firm pivots away from a broad portfolio of startup investments. It is moving towards AI bets in the US, including the proposed US$500 billion Stargate project, a tie-up with OpenAI to build a vast data centre network.\u00a0<\/p>\n ANZ <\/p>\n Melbourne-based bank ANZ Group plans to cut 3,500 staff over the next year<\/a> as its new chief executive Nuno Matos embarks on a turnaround strategy a few months into his tenure.\u00a0<\/p>\n He became CEO in May and is striving to reclaim regulators\u2019 trust and assuage investors\u2019 concerns. He took over from Shayne Elliott, who faced regulatory inquiries in his last year as the bank\u2019s chief.\u00a0<\/p>\n The lender has reportedly already started retrenching middle- and back-office jobs in its institutional banking division, according to sources familiar with the matter.\u00a0<\/p>\n Novo Nordisk <\/p>\n Novo Nordisk, the firm behind the popular weight loss drug Ozempic, will trim its headcount by 11.5 per cent and lay off 9,000<\/a> staff under a company-wide restructuring.\u00a0<\/p>\n Some 5,000 of the job cuts would be made in its Denmark headquarters, the healthcare group said on Sep 10. In August, the firm froze global hiring for roles not deemed critical to its business.\u00a0<\/p>\n The drugmaker is battling competition from US rival Eli Lilly and has forecast slower growth for 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n Its weight-loss medicine Wegovy is losing market share and has had slower growth, with copycat medicines made from the same ingredients on the market.\u00a0<\/p>\n Accenture <\/p>\n The tech consultancy will lay off workers who cannot be retrained with AI skills while it grows its team of AI talent.\u00a0<\/p>\n As part of a broader restructuring and push to prioritise AI, its CEO Julie Sweet on Sep 25<\/a> said it will be \u201cexiting\u201d staff who cannot be reskilled.\u00a0<\/p>\n The company will also continue to hire talent with AI skills and has expanded its team of AI and data professionals to 77,000 in 2025, up from 40,000 in 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n Changi Travel Services<\/p>\n Changi Travel Services, a subsidiary of Changi Airport Group that offers foreign-exchange services, will cut 30 jobs as part of its restructuring to tackle shifting market conditions.\u00a0<\/p>\n On Aug 21<\/a>, it said that affected staff will get a severance package of four weeks for each year of employment. It did not elaborate on the segments of its business that would be hit.\u00a0<\/p>\n Post-restructuring, the company said it would focus on ensuring sustainable growth.\u00a0<\/p>\n Agoda <\/p>\n Agoda axed staff<\/a> in its customer experience group (CEG), including around 50 staff in Singapore, in August.\u00a0<\/p>\n The retrenchment exercise drew flak<\/a> from unions and the authorities when news broke that the online travel site attempted to silence its retrenched workers.\u00a0<\/p>\n In a closed-door virtual town hall on Aug 4, the Singapore-headquartered firm told staff it was cutting all CEG roles in its Singapore, Shanghai and Budapest locations. It cited cost issues, recruitment challenges and plans to improve operational efficiency.\u00a0<\/p>\n A clause in its severance package agreement threatened to revoke severance entitlements of staff who reported the event to the authorities. The NTUC called Agoda\u2019s attempt to silence retrenched staff \u201cirresponsible\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n The company later apologised for its \u201cinappropriate\u201d clauses.\u00a0<\/p>\n Tata Consultancy Services<\/p>\n The Indian tech company plans to shed 2 per cent of its workforce in its 2026 financial year as clients in the country\u2019s IT sector hold back non-essential spending on technology amid inflation, weak demand and the uncertainty in US trade policy.\u00a0<\/p>\n Around 12,200 jobs will be cut, mainly in middle and senior management roles, said Tata Consultancy Services on Jul 27<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n While the company \u2013 India\u2019s largest IT services provider \u2013 attributed the retrenchments to skill mismatches rather than AI-driven productivity gains, experts said that this heralds the start of a broader trend<\/a> that could remove around half a million jobs over the next two to three years from the US$283 billion outsourcing sector.<\/p>\n Amazon <\/p>\n Amazon laid off staff from its Amazon Web Services cloud computing unit.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Reuters reported that employees said they were sent an e-mail on Jul 17<\/a>, informing them of their termination and that their devices were being deactivated.\u00a0<\/p>\n Amazon declined to disclose the number of jobs that were cut, but sources familiar with the matter said that at least hundreds of people were let go.\u00a0<\/p>\n Telstra Group <\/p>\n![\"Newsletter](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/generic_newsletter-CGny2zps.png\"\/)
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