Chicago: The deepening global economic recession claimed over 70,000 jobs in a single day, with six companies, ranging from manufacturing to telecom across the US and Europe, announcing job cuts as part of a cost cutting measures to grapple with the slump in consumer spending. With the bloodbath in the job market on Monday, the tally of total jobs lost in January so far crossed two million. Construction machinery manufacturer Caterpillar, pharma major Pfizer, telecom firm Sprint Nextel Corp, home improvement retailer Home Depot were among the six major firms that announced massive job cuts.

A total of 207,120 jobs have been lost so far this year. Nearly 2.6 million people were rendered unemployed through 2008, the highest yearly job-loss total since 1945.

Caterpillar said it would cut 20,000 jobs amid a “very challenging global business environment”.

The company had already planned to lay off 15,000 workers since the fourth quarter of 2008. It added another 5,000, bringing the total to 20,000. Pfizer would be cutting 10 per cent of its 81,900-strong staff and close five of its manufacturing plants.

Further, about 15 per cent of the workforce would be laid off in a second round, from the combined Pfizer/Wyeth staff of 120,000, taking the total to 26,000 jobs lost. The company already cut 4,700 jobs in 2008.

Sprint Nextel would cut about 8,000 jobs by March 31, it said in a release, adding, it plans to reduce internal and external labour costs by about 1.2 billion dollar annually.

The world’s largest home improvement retailer Home Depot announced it would eliminate its EXPO design centre business and cut 7,000 jobs, or two per cent of its total workforce. It said lack of demand for big ticket design and decor projects hit its sales.

Texas Instruments said it would slash its workforce by 3,400 employees to deal with weak demand. More than half of those cuts would be layoffs while “voluntary retirements and departures” would make up the rest.

Dutch financial group ING also announced about 7,000 job cuts. ING employs around 1,30,000 people across 50 countries.

Deere & Co, the world’s leading farm-equipment maker plans to cut nearly 700 jobs between factories in Brazil and Iowa. Last week, 40,000 cuts were announced across multiple industries. BHP Billiton, Clear Channel Communications, Intel, Rohm and Haas Co, UAL Corp and Williams-Sonoma announced job cuts totaling over 27,000 positions.

Time Warner Inc’s Warner Bros Entertainment said it would cut about 800 jobs, or 10 per cent, of its worldwide staff in the upcoming weeks, while Microsoft announced its
plan to cut up to 5,000 jobs — 5.5 per cent of its global workforce.

source: DnaIndia

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