Huawei to lay off hundreds of US employees

Huawei continues to suffer the repercussions of its US ban, despite some restrictions on trade having been lifted by the Trump Administration following the recent G20 Summit. The latest casualties of its operations, however, look to be US-based employees employed by Huawei's Futurewei Technologies research lab. Futurewei employs some 850 people across its research labs in Texas, California and Washington State.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the exact number of US-based employees set to have their employment terminated isn't clear, but hundreds of job losses are almost certain. As Huawei remains on the US Entity List, US-based companies must seek special permission from the Trump Administration demonstrating that their business plans will not have a potential negative impact on US national security. The type of work being undertaken by Futurewei appears to fall into a category outside the ability for Huawei to continue to conduct operations as it could be construed as US-sourced technology.

Huawei also employs many more US citizens in other areas of its business, including in the telecommunications industry with its 4G cellular network technologies. However, those jobs also appear unsustainable too, at least in the medium to long term, as Huawei has been banned from providing 5G infrastructure in the US and 4G technology will eventually be phased out. Huawei's global smartphone plans, while dealt a massive blow by the initial banning, should be starting to normalize.

With the US and China still locked in a bitter trade dispute, easing of restrictions on Huawei was considered a necessary precondition if any deal is to be made on trade between the two countries.