Ericsson to cut up to 1,600 jobs in Sweden

• Swedish vendor continues to shrink its workforce to cut costs
• It plans to reduce its domestic headcount by up to 12%

Ericsson’s workforce in its home market continues to shrink. After headcount reduction announcements in Sweden in 2023 and 2024, of 1,400 employees and 1,200 staff respectively, the giant mobile network equipment vendor has now announced a “proposed staff reduction” of up to 1,600 in the country: Negotiations with the relevant trade unions have begun. 

The move, “part of measures aimed at ensuring the company’s competitive position”, represents a proposed cut of about 1.8% of its global workforce (some 90,000) and of about 12% of its staff based in Sweden (some 13,000). 

The vendor added that the proposed headcount reduction “is part of global initiatives to improve cost position while maintaining investments critical to Ericsson’s technology leadership and the execution of the strategy to deliver high-performing, programmable networks that enable differentiated services and new monetisation opportunities. Initiatives to increase operational efficiency will continue across the group but will not be announced separately.” 

Ericsson is in the midst of a years-long effort to revamp its business to become less dependent on the radio access network (RAN) infrastructure sector, which is flatlining, and increase its growth potential in the telco software and enterprise technology sectors. 

In October last year, CEO Borje Ekholm noted during his third-quarter earnings presentation that the company had improved its cost base over the previous year, in part by reducing the global workforce by about 6,000 roles as well as through improved operational efficiencies. 

In the nine months to the end of September 2025, Ericsson reported revenues of 167.4bn Swedish krona ($18.2bn), down 4% on a reported basis and flat on a like-for-like basis compared with the same period a year earlier, and earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) of SEK27.5bn ($108m), compared with a small loss a year earlier.  

Ericsson will report its fourth-quarter and full year 2025 results on 23 January. 

- Ray Le Maistre, Editorial Director, TelecomTV