The poor state of the economy isn’t good news for anyone, not even the world’s top cellphone maker Nokia. The Finland based company has recently announced that they have been forced to cut 490 positions bringing the total number of layoffs for this year alone over 4,000.

Nokia hopes that saying goodbye to these employees will help them reach their goal of cutting annual costs totaling almost $1 billion. With the cellphone market expected to shrink by 10% this year it’s probably in Nokia’s best interests to introduce such layoffs as unfortunate as it may be.

Read (Reuters)

Tags: Business, Cell Phones, cellphone market, economy, employees, finland, job cuts, Layoffs, Nokia, Nokia, recession

It looks like even the world’s largest mobile phone manufacturer will have to undergo job cuts as well. This was announced as Vodafone is set to cut off some jobs to be able to reduce costs amidst the economic slowdown.

The company aims to announce the measures on Feb. 24, said the people, who declined to be identified because the plans are confidential. The jobs will be eliminated at Vodafone’s U.K. operations, the people said, declining to give a precise number.

Vodafone on Nov. 11 slashed its full-year sales forecast for the second time in four months, while keeping its profit forecast, raising the full-year free cash flow prediction and increasing the dividend payment.

Vodafone’s U.K. unit had a margin on earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of 23.2 percent in the six months ended Sept. 30. In Germany, Vodafone’s biggest market, the margin was 44 percent and in Italy 44.9 percent.

(Source) Bloomberg

Tags: Business, economic slowdown, italy, job cuts, jobs, mobile phone manufacturer, Vodafone, Vodafone

Similar to Toyota, Philips Electronics will be announcing its first quarterly loss after almost six years. And whenever there is a loss, you know it has something to do with the economy. To be able to offset it, job cuts are bound to follow and that is exactly what Philips has declared.

He announced that in addition to the 3,000 job reductions made in the fourth quarter, a further 6,000 would be cut during the current year.

The company, which sold most of its semiconductor business in 2006, declined to comment on possible job losses in the UK, where it employs 2,500 people, although all its worldwide operations are expected to be subject to the €400 million cost-cutting programme announced today.

(Source) Times Online

Tags: Cell Phones, economy, job cuts, job losses, Philips, philips electronics, toyota