Samsung Electronics plans to cut its global workforce by thousands of positions, likely affecting approximately 10 percent of employees in Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand.

Currently, Samsung employs around 147,000 staff outside of South Korea, accounting for over half of its total workforce of more than 267,800.

The details of the layoffs will differ across subsidiaries, but the company does not plan to implement layoffs domestically within South Korea.

A Samsung spokesperson said while some overseas subsidiaries are making routine staffing changes, the company has not established fixed targets for job reductions.

The company is facing intense competition in key markets, particularly in the memory chip sector against rivals such as SK Hynix and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.

The cyclical nature of the memory chip market has prompted Samsung to previously reduce staff, including cutting about 10 percent of jobs in India and some parts of Latin America.