LayoffBlog.com

According to CNBC, Reuters: “Shares in UBS fell sharply again on Monday as speculation grew the Swiss bank is poised to announce further job cuts and hefty writedowns, including on asset categories that have so far avoided the spotlight.

Swiss newspaper Sonntag said on Sunday that UBS, the world’s largest wealth manager in terms of assets, would cut a further 8,000 jobs and write down at least another $2 billion on illiquid assets.”

~News submitted by upthecreek

According to Reuters: “The board of French carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen fired Chief Executive Christian Streiff on Sunday and replaced him with Philippe Varin, who will take up the position on June 1, the company said in a statement.

The decision comes after Peugeot last month posted a 343 million euro ($460 million) net loss and said it expected to stay in the red until 2010.”

A downturn in orders at the Airbus factory at Broughton in Flintshire is to result 250 job cuts, unions have been told.

Officials have been in talks with management at the factory, which employs over 6,000 people, and say the company hopes most, if not all the cuts, can be through voluntary redundancies.

Source: News Wales

Nokia said Tuesday that it planned to eliminate 1,700 jobs, roughly 3 percent of its work force, as demand for phones continued to sag.
The company said 700 workers would be laid off in Finland and the rest elsewhere in Europe, Asia and North America. The layoffs are to take place in Nokia’s devices and markets divisions, which produce, market and sell mobile phones, and in a unit responsible for long-term corporate strategy.

Source: NYTimes

According to AFP: “British mobile phone giant Vodafone said Tuesday the group would axe 500 jobs in its home market as part of a cost-cutting programme that was unveiled last year.”

According to Reuters, CNBC: “Nokia has decided to cut some 90-100 jobs, roughly half the staff, of its mobile advertising business as the economic downturn dampens demand, the world’s top cellphone maker said on Tuesday.”

~News submitted by upthecreek

According to Reuters, CNBC: “Franco-American telecoms gear maker Alcatel-Lucent said it plans to cut 1,000 managerial posts from its global workforce will see 198 positions in France eliminated. Alcatel-Lucent managers in France told a works council meeting on Wednesday that 450 managerial posts would go in North America and 450 in Europe, of which 198 in France, the CFDT union said in a statement.”

~News submitted by upthecreek

According to BusinessWeek: “Nokia Corp. said Wednesday it will close the research and development center in Jyvaskyla, southern Finland by the year-end, all 320 people working there will be affected.”

“The Finnish company is also planning to temporarily lay off some 2,500 workers at a plant in Salo, on the southern coast, although production there will continue.”

According to MarketWatch: “UBS said it’s cutting its investment bank division to 15,000 jobs as it revamps its business. The Swiss bank also is creating two new divisions, Wealth Management & Swiss Bank and Wealth Management Americas.”

Top 20 Emerging Global Outsourcing Cities in 2008:

1. Cebu, Philippines [Rank in 2007: 4]
2. Shanghai, China [Rank in 2007: 8]
3. Beijing, China [Rank in 2007: 10]
4. Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam [Rank in 2007: 16]
5. Krakow, Poland [Rank in 2007: 16]
6. Kolkata, India [Rank in 2007: 5]
7. Cairo, Egypt [Rank in 2007: 11]
8. Sao Paulo, Brazil [Rank in 2007: 15]
9. Buenos Aires, Argentina [Rank in 2007: 14]
10. Shenzhen, China [Rank in 2007: 13]
11. Hanoi, Vietnam [Rank in 2007: 12]
12. Chandigarh, India [Rank in 2007: 9]
13. Curituba, Brazil [Rank in 2007: 17]
14. Prague, Czech Republic [Rank in 2007: 20]
15. Pasig City, Philippines [Rank in 2007: 23]
16. Dalian (Dairen), China [Rank in 2007: 18]
17. Coimbatore, India [Rank in 2007: 21]
18. Santiago, Chile [Rank in 2007: 19]
19. Colombo, Sri Lanka [Rank in 2007: 7]
20. Johannesburg, South Africa [Rank in 2007: 25]

Source: India Times

According to Reuters (ZURICH/LONDON): “A new round of job cuts at Swiss bank UBS AG two months after an earlier cull shows thousands more bankers may be on their way out as investment banks struggle with a crisis critics say they helped cause.”

Analysts at JP Morgan said they expect UBS to reduce its investment banking headcount by another 1,100 by the end of 2010, with Deutsche Bank cutting 4,000 investment bankers and Credit Suisse, which slashed in December 5,300 jobs, about 200.

“We expect staff levels in 2009 to be adjusted to 2005 levels, with revenues in 2010 to match 2002-03 levels,” they said.

News submitted by Alan Clegg

The Italian automaker Fiat Group SpA’s layoff plans are now hitting white-collar workers.

Fiat informed unions this week that 1,800 white-collar workers will be temporarily laid off for the first week of February, and 1,500 during the second week, the company confirmed Thursday.

That is in addition to 48,000 blue-collar workers — more than half of the Italian work force — who were temporarily laid off until the middle of January. Workers at a Naples plant also will be laid off into February.

Source: AP

SpiegelOnLine reports: “According to a report released on Wednesday by the Federal Labor Agency, which tracks German unemployment statistics, the number of jobless rose by 114,000 in December, bringing the total to 3.102 million or 7.4 percent.”

“On average, the total number of unemployed last year was 508,000 lower than in 2007. Analysts, though, anticipate that 2009 will see increased job losses in Germany.”

According to Reuters: “European investors remain upbeat about India despite an accounting scandal at IT company Satyam Computer Services (SATY.BO) that sent Indian markets tumbling on Wednesday.

Shares in the IT group fell almost 80 percent after founder and chairman Ramalinga Raju admitted inflating the company’s reported cash and bank balances by over 50 billion rupees ($1 billion).

While shaken by what has been dubbed “India’s Enron”, some investors say they will wait for signs of widespread malfeasance among Indian companies before deciding whether to change their investment policy on India.”

• Satyam is the fourth largest of the Indian IT outsourcing firms
• Satyam serves more than a third of the Fortune 500 companies
• Satyam’s clients include multinationals such as Nestlé, General Motors (GM), and General Electric (GE)
• Satyam’s auditor is PricewaterhouseCoopers, who endorsed the company’s accounts

Update: Ramalingam Raju, the chairman of troubled Indian IT outsourcing company Satyam Computer Services, resigned on Jan. 7, 2009, admitting the firm had falsified accounts and assets and inflated its profits over several years.

According to Bloomberg: “Logitech International SA (LOGN:VX), the world’s biggest maker of computer mice, withdrew its fiscal 2009 financial targets and said it will cut 15 percent of its salaried workforce because of the deepening global recession.

Logitech, based in Romanel-sur-Morges, Switzerland, will book a related restructuring charge in the fiscal fourth quarter ending March 31, 2009, the company said in a statement distributed by Business Wire today.”

• Logitech has more than 9,000 employees, according to its Web site.
• Logitech is scheduled to report third-quarter profit for the three months ended Dec. 31 on Jan. 20.

According to the company press-release: “Due to the decreasing aluminium price, which has dropped by more than 50% since mid July 2008, Vimetco has recommended at this weeks board meeting further cuts in aluminium production at Alro SA, as well as a further cut in headcount in Romania as part of an overall analysis of Vimetco’s global operations. Final decisions will be taken at next week’s board meeting of Alro SA which is due to take place at the beginning of next week. The production cuts which were discussed could go up to 50% of Alro’s capacity. Headcount will most likely be reduced by an additional 1,200 employees in 2009.”

• About Alro: Producing 283,000 metric tonnes of primary aluminium in 2007, Alro is the largest aluminium smelter in Central and Eastern Europe (excluding CIS). Alro is today one of Romania’s largest companies with an important contribution to the local and national economic development. The company is part of the international industrial and investment group Vimetco NV, which operates in the aluminium industry. Alro’s shares are traded on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, according to official information

According to the company press-release: “During the period Q4 2008 to Q2 2009, we will reduce our total workforce by more than 10 percent, comprising approximately 1,000 employees who are mainly on temporary contracts. Reductions will occur mostly at our Veldhoven headquarters site, at our manufacturing site in Wilton, Connecticut, and at our training site in Tempe, Arizona, which will be closed.”

• ASML is the world’s leading provider of lithography systems for the semiconductor industry, according to the company official information.

According to Bloomberg: “Ryder System Inc., the biggest U.S. truck-leasing company, is cutting 3,100 jobs in the U.S., South America and Europe as the global economic crisis damps demand.

About 2,400 jobs will be eliminated in Europe, Brazil, Argentina and Chile as it ends operations in the three South American countries, the Miami-based company said today in a statement. Approximately 700 other positions that are mostly in the U.S. will also be dropped, Ryder said. “

According to Bloomberg: “U.K. unemployment rose at the fastest pace since 1991 in November and the Bank of England considered cutting interest rates to the lowest ever this month as the recession tightened its grip.

The number of people receiving jobless benefits rose 75,700 to 1.07 million, the highest level since July 2000, the Office for National Statistics said today”

According to Laird PLC press release: “The flexibility of our business has allowed us to respond rapidly to the slowdown. In the final quarter of the year, our direct labor will have been reduced by about 40%, or some 4,500 employees (including the normal seasonal reduction at year end), and direct and indirect overhead by approximately 14%, or some 500 employees. Our manufacturing facility in Hungary is in the process of being closed, and three of our facilities in the US will be closed or downsized significantly, with production from these sites transferred to Mexico and China.”

About Laird: “Laird is a focused electronics and technology company employing some 14,500 people in operations in North America, Europe and across Asia.“