Ørsted to Lay Off 2,000 People as Developer Focuses on Offshore Wind and European Market

Ørsted will lay off around 500 people by the end of this year and a total of approximately 2,000 towards the end of 2027. Of the 500 employees who will be made redundant in Q4 2025, some 235 are in Denmark.

The company said on 9 October that the move to reduce the number of employees comes as Ørsted will be focusing more on offshore wind and the market in Europe. Several offshore wind farms will be completed in the coming years, and the company also plans to improve its competitiveness, which further contributed to the decision.

The offshore wind developer currently employs around 8,000 people globally, which matches the current high level of activity, Ørsted says. However, by the end of 2027, the company expects to have around 6,000 employees and plans to reduce the workforce through natural attrition, a reduction of positions, divestment, outsourcing, and redundancies. 

“Towards the end of 2027, the organisation will be rightsized in parallel with the decline in construction activities”, Ørsted said in a press release on 9 October.

The company pointed out that this was another step in the execution of its updated business plan and strategic priorities, with several initiatives to strengthen the company’s position in 2028 announced during this year, including the recently completed rights issue. As part of its updated strategy, Ørsted will also focus on offshore wind in Europe and in select markets in the Asia-Pacific region in the future.

Once all efficiency measures have been implemented, the annual cost savings are expected to amount to approximately DKK 2 billion (around EUR 268 million) from 2028, according to the company.

“We’re fully committed to finalising our 8.1 GW construction portfolio across 3 continents – Ørsted’s largest to date. At the same time, we’re building a more financially robust and competitive company with solid earnings, which will increase as we complete our projects. Once we’ve achieved this, Ørsted will be a significantly stronger, more focused and competitive company. And amongst others, we’ll have our skilled employees to thank for this”, said Rasmus Errboe, Ørsted’s CEO.

The company’s rights issue raised nearly EUR 8 billion, most of which Ørsted will use to build the 924 MW Sunrise Wind project in the US, where the developer’s projects have been experiencing adverse conditions, first with the effects of the challenges in the global macroeconomic environment over the past few years (which also hit the developer’s plans and projects outside the US), and now also with the sharp change in the approach to offshore wind by the new federal government administration.

In 2024, Ørsted revealed a substantial revision of its plans, including a reduced 2030 renewable energy target, job cuts, exit from several markets, and “leaner development” within floating offshore wind and Power-to-X.

At the beginning of this year, Ørsted announced it would reduce the investment programme the company planned to implement by 2030 by around 25 per cent, saying the reduction was in line with its commitment to ensure a capital structure that can support a solid investment grade credit rating. 

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