Tech giant Cisco reportedly may undergo second round of layoffs affecting thousands of workers

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. (WTVD) -- A major shakeup could soon come to the tech industry as stalwart giant Cisco may be undergoing another round of layoffs as early as Wednesday.

Reuters first reported the news that thousands of employees across the company could receive pink slips this week.

Cisco did not return a request for comment from ABC11.

In February, Cisco laid off an estimated 4,000 employees. Some of those employees worked at the company's Research Triangle Park campus.

"Google's cut back, Microsoft's cut back. So this would not be unique for Cisco," said North Carolina State University economist and professor Michael Walden.

The move to reduce its workforce, which the company refers to as "limited restructuring," is said to be so that the company can focus more on its artificial intelligence (AI) efforts.

"That might seem ironic because AI is obviously a technology that's coming out of the tech sector," said Walden. "But one of the expectations with AI is it's probably going to replace a lot of people at their jobs, including those in the tech sector."

Walden said he expected upward of half a million jobs to be affected by AI technology -- either a job replaced or a job created.

Wednesday, the company's CEO is scheduled to address investors and deliver a quarterly earnings report.

"The way I read it right now is it's not necessarily that Cisco was underperforming compared to the other tech companies, but they may feel as if they're underperforming compared to how they performed in the past, and how the entire tech sector is performing right now," said Walden.

Cisco is Durham County's fourth largest employer and boasts itself as North Carolina's 47th largest.

"I don't want to minimize the trauma of someone being laid off, it's very much, very traumatic for them," said Walden. "But if you had to be in a market where you have to be where you're well-credentialed, maybe a college degree and you have to get a different job, this is a market you want to be in, rather than some of the other markets in the country."

No word on how many RTP employees, if any, might be affected.