Tech companies swing the jobs axe
Published: 27 Jul 2001 11:26 BST
More than 200,000 jobs have been cut over the last few months in tech companies around the world as the economic slump has eaten into their profits.
While some tech companies, like Hewlett-Packard, have supplemented layoffs with innovative schemes such as voluntary pay cuts, most have found it necessary to prepare for slower growth by cutting back on staff. While the tech sector has suffered the worst -- with telecommunications contributing around half of the overall job losses -- the economic shock has been felt in every sector from food to chemicals.
Among the worst hit in the UK have been British Telecommunications, which on Friday announced additional job cuts that would mostly affect its BT Ignite division, and cable and telecoms company ntl, which said it will lay off 4,300, despite reporting a rise in revenues.
Among smaller job losses, Waterstone's on Thursday announced that it would turn over the operations of its e-commerce site to Amazon.co.uk, affecting 50 jobs, which the company hopes to move to other parts of the company.
While big companies continue to cut jobs, the surviving smaller Internet firms are still facing the prospect of going out of business entirely. StepStone, the recruitment site, said on Wednesday it may need more cash to make it to profitability next year, while Scoot.com told investors on Friday it had sold off its 50 percent stake in Scoot Europe to keep from going bankrupt.
The table shows the date when the cuts were announced and only includes layoffs of 1,000 or more.
| SECTOR | DATE | JOB CUTS |
| TECHNOLOGY | ||
| Cisco Systems | April | 8,500 |
| Hewlett-Packard | July | 6,000 |
| Yahoo! | April | 3,510 |
| IBM | July | 1,500 |
| Infineon | July | 5,000 |
| Philips | Over 2001 | 10,000 |
| Compaq | July | 8,000 |
| Coming | July | 1,000 |
| TELECOMS | ||
| Alcatel | July | 14,000 |
| ntl | July | 4,300 |
| Avaya | June-July | 5,000 |
| Siemens | May-July | 10,000 |
| Lucent | July | 15,000-20,000 |
| Ericsson | July | Up to 22,000 |
| Motorola | Over 2001 | 30,000 |
| Marconi | July | 4,000 |
| BT | Over 2001 | 6,000 |
| Nokia | March-June | 1,000 |
| ELECTRONICS AND ENGINEERING | ||
| ABB | July | 12,000 |
| Invensys | May-July | 6,000 |
| MAN | March | 1,200 |
| Cookson | Over 2001 | 1,960 |
| MEDIA | ||
| Reuters | July | 1,100 |
| Dun & Bradstreet | July | 1,700 |
See also: ZDNet UK's earnings roundup.
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