Sony Announced 8,000 Job Cut

Japanese electronic maker Sony has announced an 8,000 job cut in its effort to reduce expenditures and save over $1 billion operational cost, as the corporation is taking the heat of the slowing economy.

The job cut, which represents a 5 percent reduction of its current global workforce, is the largest single layoff announced by an Asian-based company.

Apart from the layoff, it will also defer its investment plan and possibly exit from non-profitable businesses in a few countries. Sources identified Slovakia to be one of the Sony’s operating countries which will be significantly affected by downsizing activities.

Despite consistently achieving record profits during the holiday seasons, particularly Christmas, this year’s season gave the company a bleak outlook as plummeting economy shrank the customers’ pocket size and as a result, sales of Sony products are expected to suffer.

Currently, Sony employs more than 160,000 staff worldwide, with main manufacturing bases in Japan, China, United States and Europe. It is powered by 57 manufacturing plants, which is expected to be reduced by up to 10% within the next few coming months.

Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, Sony is one of the world’s largest electronic manufacturers, with strong presence in media, entertainment, information technology and professional markets. Despite being the world’s largest economy, Japan succumbed to financial pressure and became the second country in Asia to enter the technical recession after Singapore.

While the 8,000 figure seems a lot and rather unforgiving, analysts predicted that the move may just be the beginning of the worse things to come. Some expected Sony to announce more layoffs soon.

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3. Japan Unemployment Rises as Economy Worsens
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6. Citigroup Layoff: More Yet To Lose Jobs
7. Welcome Japan to Recession
8. 4,000 Workers in Melaka to Lose Job

Author's bio: Zul is the founder and principal contributor for the SKOR Career blog. He is the author of two books, The Malaysian Job Seeker's Dilemma and Buat Duit Tanpa Kerja Makan Gaji (How to Make Money Without a Job), available in major book stores nationwide. You can reach him at zulkiflimusa[at]gmail.com.