Unlike Swedish rival Ericsson, Nokia does not say how many people it employs in quarterly financials. For the past year, that concealed the full human cost of Nokia's efforts to slash about 500 million (US$597 million) off its yearly expenses. But the toll was made apparent today when the Finnish company published its latest annual report. After nearly 5,000 jobs disappeared from the total in 2019, more than 6,000 went last year.
The net reduction of 11,044 left Nokia with an average workforce of 92,039 employees in 2020 and means headcount has fallen by 11% in just two years. A regional breakdown shows that job numbers fell in all parts of the world, but the decline was steepest in China. Staff numbers there dropped 12% last year, to 13,749, and they are down by nearly 3,500 since 2018.