ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – Six Group, a financial services provider owned by 150 banks, announced 28 February that it will cut 150 jobs as part of cost-trimming measures, despite 2011 profits of CHF216 million. Full results will be reported 27 March. The company, which runs payment settlements operations and the Swiss stock market, says it has been hurt by the high Swiss franc, but it also notes that the “the outlook for 2012 is cautious”, with business down in several areas.
Six Group’s operating income last year was CHF1.22 billion. Despite this the company is looking to cut costs “sustainably” by CHF30 million, or 2.3 percent, this year. Operating results have fallen, particularly since the fourth quarter of 2011. “Despite very good performance in the securities business and volume growth in the international business, the difficult economic environment and the strong franc have had a noticeable impact on the financial statements. In the card business, aside from currency effects, negative factors include falling retail sales, a decline in foreign tourists, and lower margins.”
The job cuts are likely to be mainly in the payments sector, but it’s not yet clear where, geographically, they will come. The company operates in 23 countries.
Credit Suisse says its job cuts are mostly outside Switzerland
Lausanne is feeling the pinch of the strong franc, with job cuts at Kudelski and now Bobst
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Machine tools manufacturer Bobst says it will cut 8 percent of its 5,300-strong workforce by 2013, as part of restructuring. Most of the 420 jobs that will be lost are in Lausanne while the company relocates some of its work. “Owing to the exchange rate situation and the need for market proximity, activities and functions with low added value can no longer be carried out competitively in Switzerland,” the company says in a statement issued Tuesday 8 November.” In addition to outsourcing non-core activities, “the job reductions are achieved mainly by discontinuing temporary and fixed-term contracts, as well as through early retirements and normal staff turnover.”
The firm also intends to introduce short-time working of 15-35 percent, the Swiss solution of partial unemployment, starting in January 2012, for six months to give the restructuring plans time to have an impact on the group’s financial situation.
The company must take “drastic measures” to remain competitive, chief executive Jean-Pascal Bobst says in a statement issued Tuesday 8 November.
Porto, Portugal, 2011. Where will the jobs come from?
GENEVA / ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – Credit Suisse Tuesday 1 November confirmed weekend rumours that it is cutting jobs, saying it will reduce its global staff head count by 3 percent (some 1,500 jobs), while Kudelski in Lausanne announced it will cut 270 jobs, most of them in Switzerland.
The ILO (International Labour Organization) in Geneva, in the runup to the G20 meeting in XX, says that 80 million jobs need to be created worldwide to return to pre-crisis levels, but it is likely that only half this number will be created.
“The new World of Work Report 2011: Making markets work for jobs says a stalled global economic recovery has begun to dramatically affect labour markets,” the ILO says in a statement issued Monday 31 October. “On current trends, it will take at least five years to return employment in advanced economies to pre-crisis levels, one year later than projected in last year’s report.”
See: ILO interactive statistical world map, unemployment
Swiss bank’s latest redundancies: now 7% of workforce leaving
Credit Suisse announced Tuesday 1 November that it is looking for new cost savings of CHF0.8 billion by the end of 2013, in addition to savings of CHF2 billion announced earlier.
The ink was barely dry on the $315 million sale of the Huffington Post to AOL, a deal that closed Monday, when the online media company announced Thursday 10 March that it is cuttiing nearly 1,000 jobs. The company employs 5,000 people worldwide. The US operation will see 200 jobs axed, but India will get the brunt, with 400 jobs disappearing and another 300 being outsourced. The job cuts are part of restructuring to integrate the two companies, but they come on the heel of some 2,000 jobs lost through dismissals and voluntary departures since November 2010.
AOL was an early online media services leader, but it has struggled to keep up. The Huffington Post aggregates news but also produces original content, and it has become a major news supplier in the US. Stock in both companies hit their lowest point in weeks on the news.
Links to other sites: Financial Times, Los Angeles Times, Telegraph
Company will cut back 8,400 jobs in two years for $2.4b annual savings
Hundreds laid off - Photo Roche
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Roche has been true to its word earlier this year that it would make “significant” job cuts after setbacks in its drug business: Wednesday morning 17 November the company said that it is cutting back 6 percent of its workforce.
“Operation Excellence”, as the restructuring programme is being called, will cost the company CHF2.7 billion a year for 2010 and 2011, but starting in 2011 it should bring savings of CHF1.8b and, from 2012 on, the company expects to save CHF2.4b a year.
The bulk of the 8,400 jobs to be cut are in the US, 3,500, with 1,300 in Europe and 770 in Switzerland. The rest are spread throughout the world. The most strongly touched area is the pharmaceutical division, in particular production and sales.
The company announced stable sales in October, for the end of its first three quarters.
Links to other sites: Roche press release, Financial Times background story, TSR (Fre)
Drug company Pfizer, in what it describes as a major restructuring, will lay off some 6,000 workers worldwide. Ireland’s Pfizer operations will cut 785 jobs. The news comes as 1,200 people marched in Dublin to demand a right-to-work programme, just as the European Commission told Ireland it can expect to be asked to make more budget cuts to keep the government debt from spiraling out of control. Ireland’s pharmaceuticals industry blossomed alongside the growth of technology industries in the 1980s and 1990s.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Journalists will be spared but 100 of their colleagues in support services at SSR, Swiss Public Broadcasting Corporation, will lose their jobs between now and 2014. Support services, with 735 employees, include: computer services, real estate, logistics, human resources, training, communications, marketing, and accounting.
SSR owns TSR television, RSR radio and WRS English radio, in the French-speaking part of Switzerland.
More Swiss media cuts on the way
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Edipresse, the largest media company in French-speaking Switzerland, announced Friday 9 October that it will cut nearly 10 percent of its workforce: 100 jobs, with half in its print units, some 30 journalists’ positions and the rest in production. The company has 1,124 full-time equivalent positions in Switzerland. Half of its approximately 3,000 employees work outside the country. Details about which jobs are affected will follow later. The group will begin consultations next week with staff representatives: Edipresse Romande (French-speaking area) has collective agreements with staff, although it has not had such agreements in German-speaking areas in the country.
The latest round of job cuts is due largely to a 25 percent drop in advertising since 2008, with “no improvement in sight”, the company says.
Lake Geneva region, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Publicitas, one of the main advertising sales organizations in the region, will curs its workforce by 89 people at the end of 2009, with 70 of those as redundancies. Fourteen of them will be given an offer by media publisher Edipresse.
Citigroup added to the gloomy economic news that started Monday with an announcement of recession underway in Japan by telling investors that it will reduce its workforce to 300,000 people but cutting 50,000 jobs. In the past four quarters, reports CNN, the bank has trimmed 23,000 jobs.
