Dell Has Reduced Its Workforce By 27 Percent From FY 2023 to FY 2026

Dell Technologies continued its belt tightening in Fiscal Year 2026, bringing its total headcount down by 27 percent from Fiscal Year 2023 to Fiscal Year 2026.

Dell Technologies continued its belt-tightening in Fiscal Year 2026, reducing its workforce by 11,000 employees, bringing its total headcount down by 27 percent from Fiscal Year 2023 to Fiscal Year 2026, according to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings.

The latest Dell headcount reduction, which was first reported by Reuters, came in an SEC 10-K filing on March 16. In that filing Dell said it reduced it workforce in Fiscal Year 2026 to 97,000 employees, down 10 percent from 108,000 one year ago.

That workforce reduction brings the Dell total employee headcount down 27 percent from 133,000 employees in Fiscal Year 2023 to 97,000 employees in Fiscal Year 2026, according to SEC filings.

Dell recognized roughly $569 million in severance charges in Fiscal 2026, $693 million in Fiscal Year 2025 and $648 million in Fiscal Year 2024, according to the 10-K filing.

“Throughout Fiscal 2026, we remained committed to disciplined cost management in coordination with our ongoing business modernization initiatives and continued to take certain measures to reduce costs, including employee reorganizations, limitation of external hiring, and other actions to align our investments with our announced strategic and customer priorities,” said Dell in the filing. “These actions resulted in a continued reduction in our overall headcount. Despite these difficult decisions, we continue focused efforts to empower our employees and attract, develop, and retain talent”

In Fiscal Year 2023, Dell, which had 133,000 employees at that time, said in an SEC filing that it took “certain measures to reduce cost” including a reorganization and other actions to reduce its employee population by five percent.

In Fiscal Year 2024, Dell said it had approximately 120,000 employees, a 10 percent decline from .the prior fiscal year.

In Fiscal Year 2025, Dell said it had approximately 108,000 employees, down 10 percent from the prior fiscal year,

In Fiscal Year 2026, Dell said it had approximately 97,000 employees, down 10 percent from the prior fiscal year.

In an email to CRN, Dell said: “We are always assessing our business to remain competitive and ensure we are set up to deliver the best innovation, value and service to our customers and partners."

Bob Venero, founder and CEO of Future Tech Enterprise, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., a Dell Titanium partner, said Dell is simply “rightsizing” the organization based on evolving market conditions, the sale of VMware to Broadcom, and even the integration of the workforce from EMC, which Dell acquired in 2016.

Furthermore, Venero said, Dell’s investment in AI is creating “more efficiencies, accuracy and better performance” for the company.

“Dell is doing everything they should be doing as an organization that is nimble enough to adjust to market conditions, newer technologies and transitions within their own organization,” said Venero. “Nobody is more efficient than Dell.”

Venero credited Dell founder and CEO Michael Dell and Dell COO Jeff Clarke with providing the “domain knowledge” to continue to push the envelope on efficiency as the company “scales and adjusts” for the AI era. “Having Michael as the founder and executives that have been there from the beginning like Jeff Clarke they know how to adjust and react and that leads to being more nimble, efficient and effective,” he said.

Venero said as Dell gets leaner and more efficient the company is able to invest in new technologies and products that provide big opportunities for partners. “That is absolutely a positive thing for partners,” he said. “The last thing you need as a channel partner is a stagnant organization that cannot change and adjust to market conditions.”

As for Dell’s channel commitment, Venero said the company continues to “double down” on partners. “They continue to drive innovation within the organization with new systems and new offerings,” he said. “A perfect example is the new Dell Cloud PC built for Windows 365. They are one of the only enterprise companies that has launched that kind of product alongside Microsoft. That is an example of driving innovation that partners can take advantage of.”