Today a job cut headline made the front pages again. I guess Nortel ranks high enough to warrant some space. Here are the big headlines from today:
Nortel Networks to cut 3,200 more jobs — 10% of their workforce. This is in addition to 1,800 already announced. It’s not clear where (US, Canada, elsewhere) these jobs will come from.
Advantest to Cut Workforce 26% After Forecasting Loss — The world’s biggest maker of memory-chip testers is shedding jobs in Japan. This amounts to 1,200 jobs with 450 through early retirement. Those who remain will face pay cuts.
Sparx Group to Cut 50 Jobs, Executive Pay; Cancels Dividend — Asia’s biggest hedge fund manager makes the headlines with this job cut announcement. Some “experts” (I haven’t been keeping track of who they are) are estimating that half of the world’s hedge funds are going to disappear.
Yeah, Nortel trumped today. We’ll see how the weekly unemployment insurance report is tomorrow morning. I’m rather hopeful. Last week wasn’t terrible as far as the jobs headlines went (at least in the US), was it? Consensus is that the numbers will be roughly the same as last week. I think initial claims might be a little better, but I would not be surprised to see the continuing claims rise again.
