Tuesday, January 27, 2009

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Layoffs in USA: More than 40,000 layoffs announced on Monday

Philips to cut 6,000 jobs
Royal Philips Electronics plans to cut 6,000 jobs. Those cuts could include layoffs at a Latham[,NY] operation. “I know that cuts across all sectors and all geographies,” said Ian Race, a spokesman for Holland-based Philips. Philips has 500 employees in Latham.

Sprint to lay off 8,000 by April
Sprint Nextel Corp. today said that it will lay off about 8,000 workers by April within “all levels” of the company. The carrier also said it will suspend the 401(k) matches for workers for 2009 and extend a freeze on annual salary increases started in 2008 through 2009. A tuition-reimbursement program was also suspended.

ING Group to layoff 7,000 employees
With a second successive quarterly loss on the cards for ING Group NV, the company plans to layoff 7,000 employees, and appoint Jan Hommen - the present chairman of the ING board, and the former chief financial officer of Philips Electronics - as its new CEO in the place of the current chief executive Michel Tilmant. ING - the biggest Dutch financial-services company - is likely to post a net loss of about 1 billion euros for the full 2008 year; the loss resulting partly from ending its Argentina pension operations, and from the cost incurred by disposing off an insurance business in Taiwan.

Home Depot cutting 7,000 jobs
“Home Depot, the No. 1 home improvement retailer, announced Monday that it is shutting down its high-end EXPO business and shrinking its support staff, with both moves resulting in a reduction of 7,000 jobs.”

Pfizer to lay off tens of thousands
Pfizer announced Monday that it has signed a deal to acquire the smaller drugmaker Wyeth for $68 billion, and tens of thousands of job cuts will follow. Pfizer spokesman Ray Kerins said that two waves of job cuts would occur in 2009. In the first, Pfizer said it would cut 10% of its 81,900 staff - about 8,000 jobs. Kerins said that Pfizer will launch the second round of job cuts once its merger with Wyeth and its 50,000 workers is completed in the third or fourth quarter. At that time, Kerins said Pfizer will cut 15% of the combined company’s 120,000 or so workers - about 18,000 more job cuts.

Caterpillar to lay off 20,000
Caterpillar, seeing sales for its bulldozers and other heavy equipment sinking in a worldwide economic mire, said Monday that its business was “whipsawed” during the fourth quarter and that it would eliminate 20,000 jobs in the face of a “very tough” 2009. Caterpillar announced the staff reductions as part of its fourth quarter earnings report, released Monday morning. The company said that while its revenue and profit for full-year 2008 were strong, its business ran head first into the worldwide recession in the fourth quarter.

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