An unconfirmed rumour is currently spreading wide that software giant, Microsoft is poised for a round of significant layoff, involving some 15,000 workers, or 17% of the company’s total workforce.

2 well known blogs, Fudzilla and Mini-Microsoft started covering stories of a possible massive layoff by Microsoft in December, and both are confident that what they are telling their readers are nothing but the blatant truth.

It wasn’t clearly indicated if the workers affected are full time employees, or those who are employed on contract, or through third party contractors.

In the meantime, the CNBC news took a moderate approach by saying that some restructuring is possible, but major layoff is probably unlikely. The restructuring will be aligned towards cutting the company’s operational costs and implemented through non renewal of contract workers, whose contracts are lapsed. Attrition will also be part of the game where positions which are made vacant would not be filled.

Microsoft, which prides itself with its best selling products – Windows operating system, is headquartered in Redmond, Washington, and currently employs more than 80,000 workers worldwide. However, the company is losing its popularity with its latest Windows, Vista, considered as one of the worst operating systems for the year 2008 by pundits. Its once popular browser, Internet Explorer is also now facing intense competition from rivals, Mozilla’s Firefox, Apple’s Safari and the latest, Google’s Chrome.

The economy looks and feels so bad that more and more companies are winding up and laying off workers.

But still, Penang, a state largely hit by the imminent recession, delivers a surprise when announcing a set up of a new factory, coming all the way from the United States.

The company, St Jude Medical Inc, have agreed to invest $30 million in setting up its Asia Pacific regional plant in Penang.

The facilities will be comprised of administrative area, and a major manufacturing plant, most likely to be producing pacemakers. Construction will begin this year and full operation is expected to be in 2011. The company will employ about 300 workers in its initial operation but the number may grow to exceed 1,000 as the company grows steadily.

It was learnt that St Jude Medical have sent its first batch of representatives to negotiate for possible investment initiatives with Penang state government in 2007, while the state was helmed by the former chief minister, Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon. It then turned to China for a possible new location which never materialized and came back for rounds of discussion in mid of 2008.

St Jude Medical is a $3 billion multinational manufacturer of medical products such as cardiac therapy devices, pacemakers and heart valves, focusing its specialties on cardiac management, cardiology, atrial fibrillation, cardiac surgery and neuromodulation. The company has its global headquarter based in Minnesota, US.

Some joy for Penangites.

2,000 foreign workers employed by various companies operating in Malaysia are expected to be retrenched in the next few months as companies began to offload their workforce.

The manufacturing and electronic will be the two sectors mostly hit with retrenchment as the world is facing its worst economic turmoil in decades.

With ailing economy, demand for materials and products plunged to a new low and as profits went down well below the red, many companies started to reduce their number of workers.

And while the country leaders have been conveniently expressing their optimistic views on Malaysia’s economic future, the real situation does not really tell the whole story.

Some prominent manufacturing companies have also been shutting down their factories for the past few weeks and the trend looks to continue for another one or two months.

In the past, some companies which terminated the contract of their foreign workers have neglected to complete the overall process of repatriation and did not take all the necessary actions to ensure that their former workers landed back at their country of origin. This time around, a tough follow up will also ensue as the government will be moving to ensure foreigners whose contract are terminated be sent home as fast as possible to avoid problems.

There are currently more than 2 million foreign workers employed legally in the country. More than 30% of them are working in the electonic sector.

The economy is deteriorating and many companies are restructuring their organization and save expenditures.

As a result, people starting to lose jobs in layoff exercises and retrenchment.

Not for DHL Malaysia though.

While its main group in the US has cut close to 10,000 jobs recently amid the financial hardship, the company vows to maintain its current operation size in Malaysia with only minimal restructuring in its organization.

The restructuring will come under the organizational effectiveness programs, where non-performing employees are offered several options, including relocation, taking up new roles, or leaving the company and take up severance package.

The DHL (Malaysia and Brunei) General Manager, Sam Leong, told The Star that the company will be maintaining operations at all of its 60 locations in Malaysia, which include offices, gateways, service centers, warehouses and terminals. The company has also been growing steadily with addition of new retail Service Points throughout the year.

Apart from the retail center, DHL set up its Global Information Services center in Cyberjaya and streamlined its financial shared center based in Petaling Jaya, Selangor. The information service center handles the IT and technical related support, while the shared center acts as a processing center for its accounting activities for the Asia Pacific region.

At least, some cheers for the local job market.