Samsung maintains that there is no broad, global restructuring underway
Samsung Electronics America (SEA) has cut more than 700 jobs in New Jersey as the tech giant transfers its headquarters to Texas.
A total of 739 jobs have been affected by the cuts, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) published by the New Jersey government.
The cuts were confirmed by SEA to the media, attributing the workforce changes to the transfer of its headquarters from Englewood Cliffs in New Jersey to Plano, Texas.
The shift of SEA's headquarters "may lead to changes in our workforce structure, such as employees who are unable to relocate, or certain functions that are optimised to ensure our roles align to key business priorities," according to SEA in a statement to Reuters.
It further noted that a majority of people affected have been offered relocation, but others were let go.
The HQ relocation comes less than a year after SEA transferred to New Jersey in September, where a previous press release from US Representative Josh Gottheimer indicated that it employed about 1,200 employees.
SEA said its latest move to Texas was to foster "stronger collaboration and optimise the organisation by bringing more teams together within a growing technology and AI ecosystem."
It clarified that there is no broad or global restructuring underway within its consumer product business.
SEA is the US subsidiary of South Korean-headquartered Samsung Electronics, responsible for the manufacturing and retail of electronic products such as cell phones, home appliances, televisions, digital cameras, and computer products.
The cuts at SEA come ahead of expectations that its mobile division will post its first-ever loss amid intense competition. Samsung, however, still expects a 19-fold jump in second-quarter profit amid strong demand for chips due to widespread artificial intelligence adoption.
