Microsoft has announced last week that it will close Nokia's development unit in Salo, Finland. The town, which has 54,000 residents, is crest-fallen by the move. This means a cut-off of over one thousand job positions in Salo, as part of the 7,800 massive job cut Microsoft recently announced. Nokia, which was founded in Finland, had one of its first factories established in the town in the 1970's.
The Finnish government has expressed its support for the Southern Finland town. Employment is largely consisted of information technology positions. With the cut-off happening abruptly, the town's local economy will experience a huge blow. The unemployment rate has also climbed up to 15%, a considerable increase to the 9.7% it had in 2012, following the closing down of another Nokia unit that year.
According to IBN, prime minister Juha Sipila has visited Salo, asking locals how the government can help them best with the situation. Sipila has been experienced in the field of information technology, and promised to get the country's economy back on track. Other politicians have rallied behind him as he promoted entrepreneurship for the locals to improve their condition.
But the Microsoft write off of Nokia has devastated many Finnish workers. The Nokia company used to be the employer of 5,000 workers for the mobile industry. After continuously plummeting sales, the mobile company struck a deal with Microsoft last year, and it has been responsible for some of the software company's mobile units.
Salo locals hope that instead of shutting the development unit off entirely, Microsoft will just opt to reduce numbers of employees, for a less devastating effect on the residents. Microsoft has not elaborated more on the closing off of Nokia's development units, but has indicated that it will narrow down its market for smartphones.
Nokia has recently announced its intention to return to the mobile industry. The company said it is currently looking for a hardware partner to produce the mobile units. Microsoft has also announced the upcoming release of six new Lumia Windows Phones, due to be out probably next year.
These look promising for the company. Hopefully, it will extend to the workforce.
