GM to Cut 10,000 Jobs Worldwide

Hard times for the auto industry are about to get worse for thousands of workers at the world's second biggest car company.

U.S.-based General Motors said Tuesday it will lay off 10,000 salaried workers. The automaker said the cuts will come from its operations around the world, with more than one-third affecting workers in the U.S.

Last week, GM reported January car sales in the U.S. plunged by 49 percent.

Still, GM's head of global sales, Jonathan Browning, said he expects production of vehicles at the company's U.S. facilities to start increasing. But he cautioned the increase would be the result of "balancing inventory" and not because of a jump in demand.

He also said GM will continue to focus on emerging markets like India and China.

GM's announcement comes on the same day data from China shows that country has overtaken the United States in auto sales - making China the world's biggest auto market for the first time.

The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said Tuesday China sold some 735,000 vehicles in January, about 80,000 more than the United States during the same month.

Industry analysts said China may have surged ahead in January because of a record slump in U.S. car sales.

They also noted that while both countries have been hit by the global financial crisis, China typically sees a boom in sales in January because of its annual Lunar New Year holiday.

The Chinese government has also been taking steps to boost car sales. In January, the government announced plans to cut the sales tax on small cars in half until the end of 2009.

Last week, GM's executive director of global market and industry analysis said he expected auto sales in China could hit 10.7 million units this year, which is nearly a million more than his estimate for U.S. auto sales.

Source: http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-02-10-voa29.cfm

Nissan to slash 20,000 jobs worldwide

TOKYO: Nissan sank into a loss for the fiscal third quarter and forecast its first full-year loss in nearly a decade on Monday, forcing Japan's third-biggest automaker to slash 20,000 jobs, or 8.5 percent of its global work force.

``The global auto industry is in turmoil, and Nissan is no exception,'' chief executive Carlos Ghosn told reporters in Tokyo.

Nissan Motor Co. now expects a 265 billion yen ($2.9 billion) net loss for the fiscal year through March, the first time in nine years it's tumbling into an annual loss.

The maker of the Z sports car and the March compact reported a net loss of 83.2 billion yen for the October-December period, a reversal from the 132.2 billion yen profit it earned the same period the previous year. That was its first quarterly net loss since it began reporting quarterly earnings in 2003.

Like other Japanese automakers, Nissan has been battered by the global slump and the US credit crunch, which has undermined sales in its vital North American market. A strong yen also ate into profits by eroding overseas earnings when converted back to yen.

As one key step in response to the dismal results, Ghosn said Nissan's global work force will be reduced by 20,000 through March 2010, to 215,000 from 235,000.

Directors on the board will forego bonus pay for the year ending March. Their salaries, as well as the salaries of corporate officers, will be reduced by 10 percent, while managers' salaries will be reduced by 5 percent, the company said.

Nissan sold 731,000 vehicles worldwide in the quarter ending Dec. 31, down 18.6 percent from the same period a year earlier.

Source:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/?in_leftnav