Finnish giant Nokia, once the largest phonemaker in the world, is preparing to drastically reduce its workforce. The company has begun preparing for layoffs across its India teams as part of a broader restructuring plan to reduce its workforce by as much as 14,000 employees.
As per a report from Moneycontrol, Nokia is expected to reduce its global workforce by 20 per cent. The Finnish giant currently has a workforce of over 74,000 employees. Nokia has just over 17,000 workers in India.
This comes at a time when various companies such as Amazon, Microsoft and Google, have laid off thousands of workers. Meta is also rumoured to be planning to layoff over 15,000 employees.
Nokia’s India performance is said to be in decline. The company’s net sales dropped 15 per cent year-on-year to 393 million euros (roughly Rs 4,290 crore) in the fourth quarter of 2025. In comparison, the company had reported India net sales of 463 million euros (roughly Rs 5,000 crore) in the same quarter a year earlier.
The report states that Nokia has begun changes in its India leadership. Samar Mittal was appointed as India Country Business Leader and Vibha Mehra as India Country Manager from April 1, 2026. Former India head Tarun Chhabra has exited his role amidst the organisational changes.
Under the new structure, Mittal will oversee the entire customer portfolio end-to-end, a role with greater operational control than his predecessor.
The latest restructuring is expected to result in job cuts across various functions in India, including common and global roles. It is believed that the merger of Nokia’s Cloud and Network Services, with Mobile Networks, in 2023, has created duplication. The layoffs are expected to also tackle this issue.
Nokia’s global workforce has gone through a steady decline over the years. The company was said to have around 103,000 workers in 2018. A figure that now stands at 74,100. In the same period, the head-count decreased by 500 in India.
The company is said to have been planning for additional job cuts in Europe. As per reports, around 1,400 jobs across its teams in Greece, Italy, Germany, and France.
Nokia’s telecom rival Ericsson has also been reducing its workforce. The company laid off around 5,000 employees last year, with more layoffs likely planned.
Source: India Today