NEWS | Wednesday, 09 July 2008

Siemens to lay off almost 17,000

A press statement issued by Peter Loscher, chief executive of Siemens, said the German engineering and electronics company plans on laying off 16,750 of its employees worldwide, as part of a cost-cutting exercise.
4,150 of the jobs will be cut as part of an “ongoing restructuring process”, while the remaining 12,600 are all white-collar jobs.
“The speed at which business is changing worldwide has increased considerably, and we’re orienting Siemens accordingly,” Löscher said. “Against the backdrop of a slowing economy, we have to become more efficient.”
In November last year, Siemens centralised its operations into three core segments, namely industry, energy and healthcare, recruiting the chiefs of each division on the central management board. All of the three segments now manage a total of 15 divisions.
As part of its restructuring process, the companies handling Siemens business overseas have been reduced to 20 from 70.
Despite these measures, Siemens still needs to seriously address its cost base if it is to truly compete with its competitors, some of whom work at half the budgets.
Siemens said it expects the work force reductions to save it €1.2 billion, or $1.9 billion, by 2010.
Shares of the company, which have fallen about 34 percent so far this year, were 0.8 percent higher Tuesday in Frankfurt trading.
Worldwide, Siemens and its subsidiaries employ approximately 480,000 people in nearly 190 countries and reported global revenue of €72,448 billion in fiscal year 2007. Siemens AG is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, and has been listed on the New York Stock Exchange since March 12, 2001.