Thread: Recent Layoffs

Recent Layoffs

http://money.aol.com/news/articles/_a/b ... imes/90601

In an effort to save nearly $500 million in costs, mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson, a joint venture between LM Ericsson and Sony Corp., plans to cut 2,000 jobs from its worldwide work force over the next year.

IndyMac Bancorp recently announced it would cut its work force to roughly 3,400 employees from 7,200 in the next several months in an attempt to reduce operating expenses by about 60 percent.

In a bid to streamline its operations and deeply cut costs, Siemens AG of Germany plans to cut 16,750 jobs, accounting for 4.2 percent of its workforce worldwide. The industrial conglomerate said the cuts would include 12,600 administrative jobs as well as 4,150 positions at other units.

Citing reduced commercial business and higher-than-expected Medicare-related costs, health insurer UnitedHealth Group Inc. lowered its 2008 profit outlook and says it will cut at least 4,000 jobs from its workforce of more than 80,000.

Following similar reductions by General Motors and Ford, Chrysler will idle a St. Louis factory that makes minivans and cut a shift at another that manufactures full-size pickup trucks, resulting in 2,400 job cuts. From 24/7 Wall St.: A Chrysler, Ford Merger?

Bank of America on Thursday said that once it finalizes its acquisition of troubled mortgage lender Countrywide Financial, it will reduce overlap between the companies' mortgage, home equity and insurance businesses by cutting about 7,500 jobs over the next two years.

Brunswick says that it has notified employees that it will reduce its hourly and salaried work force by 1,000, and said it may cut up to an additional 1,700 employees as further cost-cutting initiatives are completed. The boatmaker also plans to close four boat manufacturing plants, in addition to eight plant closures already completed or announced since 2007.

Tire maker Goodyear says that it will close its South Pacific Tyres plant in Somerton, Victoria, by Dec. 31 -- a move that is expected to save the company about $35 million a year. 600 jobs will be affected.

Ford-owned Volvo says that it will trim its workforce by 2,000, including 1,400 white collar staff and 600 blue collar workers, to offset the impact of a weak auto market and surging raw material costs.

In total, Citigroup has announced 13,200 job cuts this year as it tries to recover from bad investments on mortgages and leveraged loans that cut billions of dollars from its portfolio. The bank is about half-way through cutting 10 percent of the 65,000 employees in its investment banking unit.