Samsung To Slash Nearly 10,000 Jobs From Its South Korean Headquarters

The tough times continue for Samsung as it reportedly prepares to hand out pink slips to 10 percent of the staff at its headquarters in South Korea. This follows previous rounds of cuts at Samsung in general following a restructuring effort dating back to before the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge launch.

According to Bloomberg, which obtained its information from the Korean Economic Daily, the job cuts will be focused on workers in the human resources, public relations, and finance departments. With a headcount of nearly 99,000 at its headquarters, Samsung is looking at eliminating around 9,900 jobs.

Samsung Sign

In addition to laying off employees, Samsung will look at other ways of cutting costs for the coming year, though it didn't specify exactly what it has in mind.

Even though Samsung is the world's largest maker of smartphones, it's having a tough time competing with Apple at the high end and Chinese competitors at the entry level. Making matters worse, it's Galaxy S5 didn't meet sales expectations, leaving Samsung with a stockpile of unsold handsets.

Samsung brought renewed interest to its Galaxy line by switching to a premium design for its Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge launch. However, production challenges with the Galaxy S6 Edge led to a shortage of handsets, which in turn hurt the company's bottom line.