Swiss-based Schindler announces jobs cuts
LUCERNE, SWITZERLAND – The world’s second-largest elevator manufacturer, Swiss multinational Schindler, announced it had a “pleasing performance” as it turned in a net profit totaling CHF528 million for the reporting period from January 1 to September 30, 2011. Profits remained almost unchanged compared to CHF530 million in 2010.
Schindler achieved a 5.4% increase in orders received in local currencies and a 6.3% rise in operating revenue during the same period.
However, the lift-maker said that “as a result of the sovereign debt crisis and the numerous political decisions that have yet to be reached, uncertainty persists regarding the development of the global economy,” a reason why it would cut 1,772 jobs, mostly in Spain, Portugal and the United States.
“The outlook for the economies of Southern Europe and the USA remains unfavorable. Schindler therefore expects the difficult conditions in these markets to continue,” said the Swiss company in a written release.
The entire package of measures is expected to result in “operational improvements and cost savings of around CHF150 million by the end of 2013.”
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Swissinfo, SSR’s foreign language online news service and the largest web-based provider of news in English about Switzerland, will undergo major staffing cuts in the next 18 months, saving CHF9 million a year from its CHF26m annual budget. The savings will be split equally between SSR, Switzerland’s public broadcast company, and the Swiss federal government, which has mandated Swissinfo’s work.
The rationale appears to be to ensure the longer-term feasibility of Swissinfo in an online world that has changed radically since it was created 10 years ago, a phoenix rising from the ashes of the old Swiss International Radio. Swissinfo’s target audience is primarily foreigners interested in knowing more about Switzerland and the Swiss abroad. Its mandate has been, since the beginning, to provide in-depth information to foreigners on political, economic cultural and social aspects of Switzerland.
The site had traffic in 2009 of 23.7 million visits and about three times as many pages viewed. Its Facebook page is one of the most successful of any European media, with more than 100,000 fans, a figure that climbs to 200,000 if other social media platforms are taken into account.
Swissinfo was recently given a mandate by the government to add a tenth language, Russian.
Two-thirds of the staffing cuts will be technical and support staff, some of whom will be reassigned to SSR, and one-third will be editorial staff, mainly in Switzerland’s national languages with the three languages (French, German, Italian) regrouped as one editorial unit.
Two-thirds of the jobs lost will be through retirement or early retirement or reassignment, leaving 12-13 posts to be cut.
Swissinfo publishes in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish and soon Russian.
Japan Airlines declared bankruptcy Tuesday 19 January, and says it will lay off some 15,000 employees, one-third of the work force. The government says it will offer financial support during the restructuring process. The company’s failure is Japan’s largest outside the financial industry since at least the second world war, according to the Financial Times.
Links to other sites: Financial Times, Time magazine and JAL official announcement
Canada created 27,000 jobs in August while the US lost 216,000 jobs during the same month, raising hopes in Canada that the national economy, which is highly dependent on its huge southern neighbour, the US, may have decoupled from it. The Canadian unemployment rate nevertheless rose slightly to 8.7 percent as the number of people looking for jobs still outpaced the jobs available. Since October 2008, which was the peak employment level in the current cycle, 387,000 fulltime jobs have disappeared, a decline of 2.3 percent.
Unemployment in the US climbed to 9.7 percent, its highest rate since 1983, according to the US Department of Labor.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Swiss industrial group Oerlikon AG announced a drop in sales in the first half of 2009 of 40 percent to CHF1.4 billion, and negative earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of -CHF164 million. The company announced 25 August that its CEO, Uwe Krueger, is stepping down effective immediately and said board member Hans Ziegler will take over until a new CEO can be named.
The company cut 1,500 jobs in the first half of 2009, reduced hours for 2,300 workers, and announced restructuring costs of CHF130m for all of 2009. Oerlikon announced 25 August that it will cut an additional 2,500 jobs.
Related: TSR (Fre)
Ludwigshafen, Germany (GenevaLunch) – German chemicals giant BASF announced 6 July that it was eliminating 3,700 jobs company-wide by the end of 2013. In Switzerland 530 jobs will be affected. BASF bought Swiss chemical company Ciba in April 2009 and hopes to make savings of €400 million by the end of 2012.
Related: Le Temps, Fre
US job losses of 467,000 in June were higher than expected, and the unemployment rate rose to 9.5 percent, its highest level since August 1983, damping incipient hopes of a recovery. World markets took the news badly. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 2.5 percent 2 July, while the broader S&P 500 shed 2.9 percent. European and Asian markets slumped across the board, as well. After slightly hopeful signs that the recession was bottoming out, investors worldwide appeared to lose confidence in a rapid recovery. BBC, Bloomberg, Reuters
