With the continuous decline of the Chinese economy, various industries are constantly reporting news of salary cuts and layoffs. As one of the “Top Ten Typical State-Owned Enterprises in the Country,” the household appliance giant Hisense Group has seen a decline in performance this year, with recent reports surfacing about large-scale layoffs.
According to Phoenix Video and IT House on December 9th, in recent days, several netizens claiming to be Hisense employees have posted on social media that “Hisense Group is facing large-scale layoffs, with the number of employees decreasing from 110,000 to 80,000, and the layoff rate may be between 20% to 30%.”
Another netizen claiming to be a Hisense home appliance employee on social media stated, “Half and half, the list will be released next week, with a total of 30%, divided into two waves before and after the New Year.”
There are also rumors circulating on the internet that the 2024 graduates who recently joined Hisense signed resignation agreements just six months after joining the company.
In response, journalists in mainland China have approached several Hisense employees for confirmation, who all acknowledged being aware of the news but were unsure of the specific plans and percentages. Hisense’s visual workers stated, “We have not received any relevant notice yet.”
Reports indicate that the layoffs at Hisense mainly involve the Hisense Home Appliance Group. Not long ago, the former chairman of Hisense Home Appliances, Dai Huizhong, resigned and no longer holds positions such as company chairman, with the new chairman being the former financial director and chief accountant of Hisense Home Appliances, Gao Yuling.
Regarding the rumors of layoffs, several Hisense employees told Blue Whale News that they were aware of the news, but were unclear about the specific plans and percentages. One campus recruitment employee mentioned that they have received layoff notices, mainly targeting recent graduates and new social recruits.
If the news of 30,000 layoffs is true, this layoff scale could be one of the largest in global technology companies in recent years. As early as 2020, Hisense was rumored to have laid off thousands of people, but at that time, Hisense issued a statement clarifying that senior management took pay cuts, poor performers were eliminated first, and layoffs totaling “thousands” were not accurate.
Public records show that Hisense was established in 1969 as a local state-owned enterprise. In 2004, the Qingdao Municipal Government transformed it into a state-owned sole proprietorship company and later introduced non-state capital. Currently, Hisense Group remains state-owned, and the company is one of the top ten typical state-owned enterprises recommended by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council and the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China. The group has approximately 100,000 employees.
As a leader in the Chinese home appliance industry, Hisense Home Appliances has shown a slowdown in revenue and net profit growth this year. In the third quarter of this year, Hisense Home Appliances achieved revenue of 21.9 billion yuan, a decrease of 0.08% year-on-year, with a net profit attributable to equity holders of 780 million yuan, a decrease of 16.29% year-on-year, indicating a downward trend.