Ericsson is downsizing its Canada operations despite recent gains in the Americas.

The Globe and Mail reported this week that around 100 staff in the company's national operations and technical support centres were laid off on Monday, with October 31 as their last day of work. The staff will receive severance and transition support from Ericsson.

Spokesperson Nathan Gibson said the move was due to a consolidation of Ericsson’s network management services into its global operations. The company will now distribute this work among its global hubs, though it did not disclose how many Canadian jobs are being moved abroad or to which countries.

Despite the downsizing, Gibson reiterated Ericsson's commitment to its Canadian operations and customers.

The affected staff formerly worked for Toronto-headquartered telecom operator Rogers Communications Inc., maintaining its cellular tower network.

April saw Rogers give around 400 technicians and managers the option to either accept severance or transfer their employment to Ericsson, which would then serve as a contractor for the operator.

Half of the former Rogers staff at Ericsson have since been attempting to unionize, with a third of the recent layoff victims having joined the effort last week.

In July, the United Steelworkers Local 1944 union filed to form a bargaining group of 200 transferred employees. The union filed an update last Friday, including 37 of those laid off this week. According to the union, the application is currently pending before the board.

Managers carried over in the Rogers transition were spared in Ericsson’s layoffs.

Ericsson's Americas growth

The Canadian downsizing comes a few months after Ericsson cut 300 jobs in Spain. According to the vendor, the decision was made to "create operational efficiencies.”

In 2023, the telecom giant outlined plans to cut 8,500 jobs globally as part of wider cost-cutting measures, while 1,200 jobs were eliminated in its homeland of Sweden a year later due to a "challenging mobile networks market” in the wake of 5G’s slow takeup.

Ericsson’s most recent financials revealed adjusted gross income of SEK 26.9 billion ($2.7 billion) for the quarter, marking a 3% increase year-on-year (YoY).

Those results saw an increase in activity in the Americas market area, with the region making up a higher proportion of net sales at 35%, at an organic growth of 10% YoY for the quarter. Networks were the main driver at 64% of sales, followed by cloud software and services (26%), and enterprise (10%). Sales for Canada were not specified in the Q2 report.

More recently, Swedish telecom rival Ovzon hired Ericsson Canada's president Jeanette Irekvist, with the exec revealed as Ovzon's new chief commercial officer in September.

Ericsson’s next set of earnings for Q3 2025 is scheduled for October 23.