General Motors (GM), the American automotive giant, is laying off 1,000 employees from its software and service units globally, according to a Reuters report on Monday, August 20.
“As we build GM’s future, we must simplify for speed and excellence, make bold choices, and prioritize the investments that will have the greatest impact,” the automaker said in an official statement, as cited in the report.
Nearly 600 of the affected employees are based at GM’s tech campus near Detroit, Michigan, representing almost half of the job cuts in the US. The layoffs were not driven by cost-cutting measures but were part of an operational review following the departure of Mike Abbott, the executive vice president of software and services, who left GM in March for health reasons.
Abbott, a former Apple executive, joined GM in 2023 to spearhead the company’s software development efforts amid increased investment in its electric vehicle division and subscription services.
In April 2023, GM announced that nearly 5,000 salaried employees had accepted buyouts as part of the company’s efforts to achieve a $2 billion cost reduction. This followed earlier cuts in February 2023, when GM reduced hundreds of executive and salaried positions.
The recent layoffs account for approximately 1.3 percent of GM’s global workforce, which numbered around 76,000 employees by the end of 2023, including 53,000 in the US. According to GM’s website, the company employs 95,000 people and operates 156 facilities across the US.
