LayoffBlog.com

Verizon’s Chief Financial Officer John Killian is not sugarcoating what’s in store for the ILEC’s workforce: more job cuts are coming. During an investor conference late last week, Killian said additional employee reductions are necessary, but would not offer a specific timeline when these cuts would occur. Over the past year, Verizon laid off 8,000 workers with plans to cut another 8,000 in the second half of 2009.

Source: FierceTelecom.com

British telecom giant BT’s plans to cut 2,000 call centre jobs in India to provide permanent positions for UK staff during the recession have taken a major hit, over worries whether British workers would put in the stifling hours.

Keeping the recession in mind BT, which had moved 5,500 call centre jobs to India in 2003, had said that it was preparing to repatriate the jobs.

Source: Rediff

BT is cutting its call centre workforce in India by 4,000 and bringing some of the work back to the UK, the telco confirmed.

The company recently topped a poll of UK companies with the worst customer service, with complaints including call waiting times and trouble getting offshore call centre staff to understand English accents.

Source: BusinessWeek

Verizon Communications Inc. said Monday it will cut more than 8,000 employee and contractor jobs before the end of the year in the wireline business, speeding up its efforts to keep costs in line, according to chief financial officer John Killian.

Verizon ended the quarter with 235,000 employees, up from 229,000 a year ago, despite already cutting 8,000 jobs during the year. Contractor jobs are not included in those totals.

Source: GoogleNews, AP

~News submitted by upthecreek

Level 3 Communications Inc., the money-losing U.S. phone operator, posted first-quarter sales that missed analysts’ estimates and said it plans to cut 150 jobs this quarter, sending the stock down 14 percent.

The recession is forcing customers to disconnect lines, and “revenue pressure” will continue this quarter, Chief Financial Officer Sunit Patel said in a statement. The company, which cut more than 1,400 jobs last year, swung back to a loss after reporting its first profit since 2003 in the previous quarter.

Source: Bloomberg

Nokia this morning took extra steps to improve its finances and said it would scale back the development of its online services.

In addition to the reduced efforts, the company also warned that it would cut about 450 positions from its internal IT staff as well as its Compatibility & Industry Collaboration group, which handles support for outside services. The cuts are claimed by Nokia to be part of its existing job cut plan, though the total number of layoffs has expanded significantly over the past several months.

Source: Electronista

Mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson on Friday said it would cut 2,000 more jobs after it swung to a loss of 293 million euros (384 million dollars) in the first quarter of the year.

“The additional cost saving programme announced today will include a further reduction in the global workforce of approximately 2,000 people,” the company said in a statement.

Source: AFP

In 2009, technology companies have been cutting jobs at a rate not seen since the fallout from the dot.com bubble.

Companies in the technology sector announced planned job cuts totaling 84,217 in the 2009 first quarter, according to the report released Monday by global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. That’s up 27 percent from 66,312 in the previous quarter, and the largest quarterly job-cut tally for the sector since the fourth quarter of 2002, when 133,511 layoffs were announced.

First-quarter tech sector job cuts were nearly five times higher than the 17,345 cuts announced during the same period a year ago.

Source: Austin Business Journal

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

Sprint Nextel is not going to outsource its network management any time soon, according to an analyst from a firm that recently met with Sprint CFO Bob Brust. Brust met Monday with investors at a gathering sponsored by Robert W. Baird & Co.

Sprint is continuing with the 8,000 job cuts it announced in late January, and they appear to be on track to be completed by the end of March.

Source: FierceWireless

According to Bloomberg: “Nortel Networks Corp. plans to cut 3,200 jobs worldwide, a tenth of the total, as the unprofitable phone-equipment maker works on emerging from bankruptcy protection.

The reductions, in addition to 1,800 announced previously, will occur over the next several months, the Toronto-based company said today in a statement. Nortel also won’t pay any bonuses under its incentive plan for last year.”

Vodafone Group, the world’s largest mobile operator by revenue, on Tuesday unveiled plans to cut 500 jobs in the U.K. as it reduces costs to better cope with the worsening economic climate.

The company is the latest of a string of U.K. companies to announce job cuts since the start of the year. The layoffs, which represents about 5% of its U.K. work force, didn’t come as a surprise as they are part of the operator’s previously announced plan to reduce costs by 1 billion pounds by March 2011.

Source: MarketWatch

Motorola is reported to have cut 1,000 jobs from its Chinese R&D facility, leaving only about 100 employees at its Wangjing offices. The company hasn’t confirmed the number of employees that were laid off, although a spokesperson for Motorola announced that there had been job cuts.

The spokesperson noted that, “According to Motorola’s financial results for the fourth quarter of last year, the company dismissed 4,000 employees worldwide, including 3,000 employees from the mobile phone unit. But that is a global figure, and we do not have specific figures for China and other regions.”

Source: Softpedia

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 Reuters, CNBC: “Nortel Networks Corp is working on a “detailed plan” to cut its global workforce as it restructures under bankruptcy protection, and it will seek to avoid holding an annual shareholder meeting because it says it would be distracting and expensive.”

“Ernst & Young Inc, the monitor overseeing Nortel’s bankruptcy protection, said in a court report posted on its website. The monitor’s report confirms that despite slashing its workforce to 30,000 today from about 90,000 in 2000, Nortel — North America’s biggest maker of telephone equipment — still isn’t finished with job cuts as it fights to survive.”

“The Toronto-based telecom equipment maker filed for bankruptcy protection in Canada and the United States last month, blaming the economic crisis for derailing a turnaround effort that began in 2005.”

~News submitted by upthecreek

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.

Source: Computerworld

Swedish telecoms equipment giant Ericsson AB on Wednesday posted a 31% drop in fourth-quarter profit as restructuring charges and losses at its mobile phone venture took a toll on the bottom line, but its sales rose at a time when many competitors are struggling for survival.

Ericsson (ERICY) also unveiled plans to deepen its restructuring and eliminate about 5,000 additional jobs as it prepares to cope with a sharp fall in demand for telecoms equipment. The measures will cost 6 billion to 7 billion kronor and lead to annual savings of 10 billion kronor by the second half of 2010.

Source: CNNMoney

According to China Daily: “The financial tsunami has triggered panic around the world, with its impact taking a heavy toll on a variety of industries in Hong Kong. Turmoil in the global credit markets has severely weighted down earnings of the banking and finance industry, which triggered a wave of job cuts among local banks.”

• Starting from September, Europe’s largest bank HSBC laid off 4 percent of its worldwide back-office staff, including 100 employees in Hong Kong
• In November, HSBC axed 450 jobs in Hong Kong in its second round of layoff.
• In early November, Southeast Asia’s biggest bank DBS trimmed its workforce by 6 percent, or 900 jobs, in its Hong Kong and Singapore operations
• Standard Chartered Bank, a UK-based lender focused on emerging markets in Asia,shed 200 jobs - 4 percent of its staff - in Hong Kong in early December.
• Banks in Hong Kong may further reduce their staff numbers in the first half of 2009
• In early October, Hong Kong toy maker Smart Union Group closed down its two factories in Dongguan, throwing almost 7,000 workers into unemployment.
• Around 5,000 factories in the region had already closed down amid the financial meltdown.
• The Christmas sales in the US tumbled around 20 to 30 percent this year, which means the export market for the mainland has significantly shrunk
• Hong Kong-funded factories in the PRD may close down in 2009
• The bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in September has also severely affected more than 40,000 holders of Lehman’s minibonds in Hong Kong

Stepping into 2009, economists expect it may take quite a while for the territory’s economy to bounce back, according to China Daily

According to California EDD WARN statistics, the following layoffs are scheduled for January - February 2009 in hi-tech companies with number of employees greater than 50:

ADOBE SYSTEMS INCORPORATED, Location: SAN FRANCISCO, Layoff date: 2/3/09, Employees affected: 75

CADENCE DESIGN SYSTEMS, INC, Location: SAN JOSE, Layoff date: 1/4/09, Employees affected: 245

NATIONAL SEMICONDUCTOR CORPORATION, Location: SANTA CLARA, Layoff date: 1/13/09, Employees affected: 151

PALM, INC, Location: SUNNYVALE, Layoff date: 1/19/09, Employees affected: 107

SANDISK CORPORATION, Location: MILPITAS, Layoff date: 1/11/09, Employees affected: 96

SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY LLC, Location: MILPITAS, Layoff date: 1/3/09, Employees affected: 48
SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY LLC, Location: MILPITAS, Layoff date: 4/3/09, Employees affected: 43

SHUTTERFLY, INC, Location: HAYWARD, Layoff date: 1/16/09, Employees affected: 70

SIEMENS, Location: LOS ANGELES, Layoff date: 1/30/09, Employees affected: 6

SIEMENS MEDICAL SOLUTIONS, Location: MOUNTAIN VIEW, Layoff date: 1/5/09, Employees affected: 2

SUN MICROSYSTEMS, INC:
Location: SACRAMENTO, Layoff date: 1/5/09, Employees affected: 3
Location: SACRAMENTO, Layoff date: 1/18/09, Employees affected: 2
Location: EL SEGUNDO, Layoff date: 1/5/09, Employees affected: 1
Location: EL SEGUNDO, Layoff date: 1/18/09, Employees affected: 1
Location: IRVINE, Layoff date: 1/5/09, Employees affected: 4
Location: IRVINE, Layoff date: 1/18/09, Employees affected: 3
Location: MENLO PARK, Layoff date: 1/5/09, Employees affected: 19
Location: MENLO PARK, Layoff date: 1/18/09, Employees affected: 6
Location: PLEASANTON, Layoff date: 1/5/09, Employees affected: 5
Location: PLEASANTON, Layoff date: 1/18/09, Employees affected: 7
Location: SAN DIEGO, Layoff date: 1/5/09, Employees affected: 2
Location: SAN DIEGO, Layoff date: 1/18/09, Employees affected: 2
Location: SAN FRANCISCO, Layoff date: 1/18/09, Employees affected: 4
Location: UNIVERSAL CITY, Layoff date: 1/18/09, Employees affected: 1

SYMANTEC:
Location: CUPERTINO, Layoff date: 1/19/09, Employees affected: 55
Location: MOUNTAIN VIEW, Layoff date: 1/13/09, Employees affected: 38

VISHAY SILICONIX, Location: SANTA CLARA, Layoff date: 2/6/09, Employees affected: 97

VIRGIN MOBILE USA, Location: WALNUT CREEK, Layoff date: 1/1/09, Employees affected: 192

THE BOEING COMPANY:
Location: ANAHEIM, Layoff date: 1/1/09, Employees affected: 5
Location: ANAHEIM, Layoff date: 1/22/09, Employees affected: 2
Location: EL SEGUNDO, Layoff date: 1/1/09, Employees affected: 8
Location: EL SEGUNDO, Layoff date: 1/22/09, Employees affected: 3
Location: HUNTINGTON BEACH, Layoff date: 1/1/09, Employees affected: 19
Location: HUNTINGTON BEACH, Layoff date: 1/22/09, Employees affected: 42
Location: LONG BEACH, Layoff date: 1/1/09, Employees affected: 50

Source: California EDD WARN