The labour market has been dealt another hefty blow as technology companies around the world continued to unveil plans to cut jobs in response to tough economic conditions.
The US computer maker Hewlett-Packard said it was cutting around 6,000 jobs. Infineon, the Munich-based chip maker, is axing about 5,000 positions while the French telecoms equipment maker Alcatel, said it would have cut 20,000 jobs by the end of this year.
The moves come on top of the dramatic job cuts already dished out across the industry by the likes of Ericsson, the Swedish mobile phone maker, its US counterpart Motorola and the UK telecoms equipment maker Marconi.
They also follow radical cuts announced this week by the engineering giant ABB, which is shedding 12,000 jobs. The financial news provider Reuters announced plans to cut 1,340 staff while the US telecoms equipment maker Lucent said it was axing up to 20,000 jobs.
Carly Fiorina, Hewlett-Packard's chairman and chief executive officer, said yesterday: "Economies around the world continue to weaken as we move through the quarter."
Blaming "deteriorating global economic conditions and related weakness in technology spending, particularly in the consumer sector", HP said it expected to report a revenue decline of 14-16 per cent year on year for its third quarter ending 31 July.
Similar problems are being felt across the Atlantic by Infineon, which detailed plans to axe about 15 per cent of its staff.
Ulrich Schumacher, Infineon's president and chief executive, said the "dramatic developments in the market and our business situation" left the company no choice but to implement "impact", its cost-cutting programme designed to save it roughly $2.13 billion (614m pounds sterling) over the next 12-18 months.
"There are currently no clear signs of a recovery in the marketplace, and demand is extremely weak in the mobile phone and PC markets," it said.
- INDEPENDENT
Jobs gloom deepens as tech companies shed 31,000
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