Laid off Indian Qualcomm employee on H1B visa says he has limited time to find a new job

Qualcomm laid off 5 per cent of its workforce amid the annoying economic slowdown in the tech industry. The California-headquartered chip manufacturer announced the layoffs, citing the current macroeconomic and demand environment. It noted that the cutdown on workforce was part of implementing further spending reductions and streamlining operations, while still keeping an eye on the significant growth and diversification opportunities ahead. According to reports, the company laid off around 20 per cent of its mobile division employees after the announcement.

While the layoffs left impacted employees jobless and struggling to find new roles, the downsizing was especially difficult for foreign employees, such as Indian techies, who are on H-1B visas to work in the United States. The H-1B visa, which allows skilled workers from other countries to work in the US, has time constraints, so these techies are facing a race against time to find new employment.

A senior-level Qualcomm employee, who joined the company just one year ago, took to the social media site LinkedIn to share his ordeal and is seeking help in finding a new job in the US before he runs out of time granted by his H1B visa.

The techie, who joined Qualcomm in 2022 as a Senior GPU Performance Modeling Engineer, took to social media after failing to land a new job in the last month. "A little over a month ago, I was unfortunately impacted by a round of layoffs at Qualcomm," Trehon wrote on LinkedIn. "Being an immigrant worker on H1B, I have limited time to look for a new job," he further added.

Qualcomm layoffs 2023

Qualcomm announced layoffs after reporting a decline of 34 percent year-on-year (YoY) in net income in the quarter that ended in December 2022, as reported by Business Today. The company's revenue dropped 12 percent, which was attributed to the macroeconomic slowdown and the fall in demand for mobile handsets.

"Given the current macroeconomic and demand environment, we are implementing further spending reductions and streamlining operations without losing sight of the significant growth and diversification opportunities ahead," CEO Cristiano Amon said in a statement earlier.

"This is consistent with our commitment to actively manage operating expenses, as indicated during our last earnings call. Combined with the actions we have already taken in the quarter, we expect to reduce non-GAAP operating expenses by approximately 5 percent relative to a run rate exiting fiscal '22," he further added.

Notably, the low demand for smartphones directly impacting the company as chip manufacturing is one of Qualcomm's major revenue-generating operations.