Oracle job cuts hit middle managers, workers over 40 in cloud unit

Middle managers and employees aged 40 and above reportedly bore a significant share of Oracle's latest layoffs in its cloud infrastructure unit

Oracle’s latest round of layoffs has hit middle managers and older employees particularly hard in its cloud infrastructure business, according to a report by Business Insider.

 

Business Insider obtained a leaked document covering the job titles and ages of 546 employees laid off from Oracle’s America Cloud Infrastructure organisation. The document was prepared to comply with US federal age-discrimination laws. The 546 employees represented about 7.6 per cent of the 7,185 employees listed in the unit.

 

The latest cuts follow a reduction of about 21,000 employees, or 13 per cent of Oracle’s workforce, during the financial year ended May 31, according to company filings. Before the latest round, Oracle had about 141,000 employees.

 

Developers, managers among those affected

Software developers accounted for about 17 per cent of the roles eliminated in the cloud infrastructure unit, Business Insider’s analysis found. The largest number of cuts in a specific job category was among software developer III roles, with 57 positions eliminated. Program manager IV and principal core infrastructure engineer were also among the roles most affected. 

 

The cuts also affected Oracle’s data centre support services division, which handles maintenance and technical support. Forty-one employees from the division, including a vice-president and two senior directors, were among those laid off, according to the report.

 

Management roles were particularly affected. Business Insider found that 128 of the eliminated positions, or about 23 per cent, had the word “manager” in their titles. Program managers accounted for 61 of the terminations. The cuts come amid a broader move by technology companies towards flatter organisational structures with fewer management layers.

Older workers account for significant share

The demographic information in the leaked document also showed that a majority of employees affected in Oracle’s cloud infrastructure division were over 40. About 16 per cent were aged 60 or older.

 

The layoffs come as Oracle is expanding aggressively in artificial intelligence infrastructure. The company expects to spend $90 billion to $95 billion this year on new data centres to meet demand linked to AI, according to the reports.

 

The latest cuts are part of Oracle’s broader effort to manage costs while redirecting resources towards its cloud and AI infrastructure expansion, according to the company.