Samsung cuts 839 U.S. jobs as phone unit struggles

Samsung is cutting about 839 jobs in the U.S., underscoring a split inside the company: its consumer electronics and smartphone business is under pressure even as its chip and memory operations are booming.

According to Reuters, Samsung confirmed that 739 employees are being let go in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. Anonymous sources told Reuters that about 100 more were cut in Plano, Texas. Samsung also told Reuters that the majority of affected workers had received “relocation offers.”

The layoffs hit Samsung’s display, phone, and other consumer electronics operations, Reuters reported. The roles mentioned were in sales and marketing, rather than the blue-collar jobs that are more commonly unionized in the U.S.

The cuts come against a broader backdrop of labor tension at Samsung. A 2019 report from Hankyoreh described extensive anti-union activity by Samsung executives across multiple countries, saying even limited efforts at collective action were met with retaliation.

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At the same time, Samsung’s financial picture has sharply improved elsewhere. Earlier this month, the company reported a 19-fold quarterly jump in profits as demand for memory and chips tied to data center buildouts surged.

That contrast is even sharper when compared with South Korea, where Samsung’s chip and memory business is centered and workers have recently shown more leverage. Organized Samsung workers authorized a strike, and in May, with pressure on the company to keep its memory business running smoothly, Samsung agreed to major worker deals, including bonuses worth $400,000.

The broader boom around AI has been a mixed outcome for Samsung. While it has fueled chip and memory revenue, reports this spring said executives were worried by profit projections showing the company’s first-ever failure to turn a profit on smartphones.