Panasonic plans 17,000 job cuts

The Japanese consumer electronics giant we’ve all come to know and love has announced thats its cutting 5% of its workforce (367,000); Thats a staggering 17,000 jobs! The cuts are expected to take 2 years to be executed due to the sheer scale of the operation. Out on the playing field is the closure of 20% of Panasonic’s manufacturing facilities.

The cuts will cost the company about Y160bn ($2bn) although Y110bn has already been set aside for the restructuring (source: Financial Times),

Panasonic has joined the growing trend of cuts as Finnish Phone company Nokia has also layed off thousands of workers. This however was due to dropping Symbian support from the platform.

According to the Associated press, the Japan earthquake has had a disastrous impact upon most Japanese consumer electronics firms’ quarterly profits. Only time will tell if Panasonic can pull through this disaster……