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Companies Accelerate Layoffs
2008年12月5日
Companies are accelerating job cuts amid declining sales and the expectation of tougher times across the economy.
This week alone, employers have announced at least 33,000 job cuts in the latest round of grim announcements from the corporate trenches. AT&T Inc. on Thursday said it will cut 12,000 jobs, or 4% of its work force. Other household names announcing payroll cuts included Viacom Inc., DuPont Co. and Avis Budget Group Inc.
The U.S. economy has lost about 1.2 million jobs this year. And when the government issues its monthly employment report Friday, economists expect to see a loss of 350,000 jobs for November -- a figure that doesn't include the cuts announced Thursday. The unemployment rate is expected to tick up to 6.8% for November and top 8% by the end of next year. That would make this recession the worst for the job market since the contraction of 1981-82, when unemployment hit 10.8%.
The broad swath of industries involved in Thursday's announcements shows that job losses are spreading far beyond the housing and finance sectors to virtually every corner of the economy. Paper maker AbitibiBowater Inc. said Thursday it is cutting 1,100 jobs, about 7% of its work force, as it closes paper mills in Canada, Alabama and Tennessee. Office-furniture maker Steelcase Inc. said it would close an Atlanta plant that employs 300 people, part of a restructuring that will eliminate 600-900 jobs. Those come on top 492,000 manufacturing jobs lost nationwide through October.
More job cuts are likely. Auto makers have proposed shrinking their operations in exchange for federal aid. And financial companies announce new layoffs daily. Credit Suisse Group on Thursday said it would eliminate 5,300 jobs, about 11% of its work force, as it reduces the size of its investment-banking arm. State Street Corp. on Wednesday announced a 6% cut to its work force, representing as many as 1,800 employees.
The Business Roundtable, which represents 160 big U.S. companies, said Thursday that 60% of chief executives in a recent survey expect to slash jobs in coming months.
'As economic conditions continue to soften, so have our member CEOs' near-term expectations for sales, capital spending and employment,' said Business Roundtable Chairman Harold McGraw III, who is also chief executive of McGraw-Hill Cos.
Workplace experts say executives are moving quickly to cut costs, including jobs, often before business suffers. AT&T recently reported a 5.5% increase in third-quarter profit. Software maker Adobe Systems Inc. said Wednesday it would lay off 600 employees, or 8% of its work force, even as it projected an 18% to 21% increase in fiscal fourth-quarter profit. Adobe executives said sales had slowed in the past month.
Steve Gross, a global practice leader at consulting firm Mercer LLC, says some executives are eliminating jobs 'as a preventive measure' in anticipation of a long recession. 'If you knew you were going to need the workers in six months, you'd never lay them off,' he says. But 'they probably don't need these workers for 12 months or longer. . . . Companies want to make sure that they can keep their margins.'
Mr. Gross says he believes most companies are cutting jobs in specific units or regions rather than across the board. AT&T, for example, says it will continue hiring in growing parts of its business, including wireless services and its video offerings. 'For an organization of that magnitude, 4% is relatively small,' Mr. Gross says.
Other companies say they are responding to rapidly shrinking revenue. DuPont executives say sales volume fell 15% in October and November, after dropping 4% in the third quarter. 'Many customers have dramatically curtailed production to draw down inventories,' CEO Charles O. Holliday Jr. told analysts on a conference call for the chemicals company. DuPont said it will cut 2,500 jobs, or about 4% of its work force.
Cutbacks will continue to reverberate across the economy. AT&T and DuPont said they would cut capital spending, which will spill over to their suppliers. In AT&T's case, that includes equipment makers such as Nortel Networks Corp., which last month said it would cut 1,300 jobs, and Alcatel Lucent, which is cutting 16,500 jobs in a restructuring begun last year.
AT&T said its layoffs will begin this month and run through next year. The company will take roughly a $600 million charge in the fourth quarter to pay severance. AT&T didn't specify which business units would lose jobs, but its traditional wire-line service has been most affected by the downturn.
Although AT&T's profit is still growing, executives expect the recession will exacerbate longstanding challenges: a shrinking land-line business as consumers ditch home phones for cellphones, and increasing competition from cable providers in the residential phone and broadband market. In the third quarter, AT&T lost one million residential land lines and saw business revenue decline 1.4%.
AT&T's chief rival, Verizon Communications Inc., in October said it would lay off 2,700 workers in its land-line unit, mostly managers. Both AT&T and Verizon say they are continuing to hire workers in growing areas, such as wireless and their nascent television services. An AT&T spokesman says many unionized workers being cut will be eligible for such positions.
Other telecoms also have been cutting staff. Telecom Italia SpA said Thursday it would cut 4,000 more jobs, on top of the 5,000 layoffs it announced in June. U.S. wireless provider Sprint Nextel Corp. recently began offering voluntary buyouts to some employees but didn't specify how many workers were affected.
Avis Budget is cutting 2,200 positions, about 7% of its work force. The car-rental company also froze management salaries, will close unprofitable off-airport locations and is adjusting the size of its fleet.
In the media business, Viacom and General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal are slashing jobs as the industry girds for a steep advertising decline next year. The layoffs come at the end of a year in which advertising has shrunk despite predictions of an increase because of the Olympics and presidential election. Total TV advertising is projected to fall 1.9% this year and 5% next year, according to Bernstein Research.
Viacom said Thursday it would cut 850 jobs, or 7% of its work force. Most of the layoffs will come from its MTV Networks programming unit, according to people familiar with the cuts. But Viacom's cuts are spread across the company, including its Paramount movie studio and BET Networks.
At NBC Universal, the job reductions also span the company, but they may be deeper at the 10 local NBC stations it owns, where the ad market is especially bad. NBC Universal said it will eliminate 500 jobs, or 3% of its work force, as part of a $500 million cost-saving plan announced in October.
Also Thursday, newspaper chain Gannett Co. said it would eliminate about 2,000 positions as a result of previously announced plans to cut about 10% of the staff across its Community Publishing Division, which includes 83 daily newspapers. RealNetworks Inc. said it was laying off 130 workers or 7.5% of its work force. And publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Co. is expected to cut several hundred of its 5,300 full-time employees as part of a restructuring, a person familiar with the situation said.
Amol Sharma / Sudeep Reddy / Cari Tuna
美国企业加快裁员步伐
鉴
于销售下滑及对各经济领域将迎来更大困难的预期，企业开始加快了裁员步伐。
仅在本周，在企业方面传出的最新一波无情的人事消息中，雇主们就宣布了至少33,000人的裁员计划。美国电话电报公司周四宣布裁员12,000人，占其员工数的4%，其他公布裁员的企业还有维亚康姆、杜邦和Avis Budget Group。
今年美国已裁减了大约120万个工作岗位。本周五政府将公布月度就业报告，经济学家预计，11月份裁员总数达35万人。这个数字不包括周四宣布的人数。11月份的失业率预计将升至6.8%，到明年底将超过8%。这将使这次衰退成为劳动力市场自1981-82年那次下滑以来最糟糕的一年。当时的失业率高达10.8%。
Getty Images 在马萨诸塞州举行的一场招聘会
周四宣布裁员的公司涉及多个行业，显示裁员现象已经超出住房和金融领域，扩大到几乎每一个经济领域。造纸企业AbitibiBowater Inc.周四说，因关闭设在加拿大、阿拉巴马和田纳西的造纸厂，公司计划裁员1,100人，占员工总数的7%。办公家具制造商Steelcase Inc.称，公司的重组计划总计将裁减600-900个职位，包括关闭在亚特兰大的一家有300名员工的工厂。今年1至10月份，全美制造业共裁减了492,000个职位。
未来还有可能进一步裁员。为获得联邦政府资助，汽车制造商已提出缩减业务。而金融类企业每天都会传出新的裁员消息。瑞士信贷周四说，因削减投行部门的业务规模，将裁减5,300个职位，约占员工数的11%。道富银行周三宣布裁员6%，涉及1,800名员工。
代表美国160家大型企业的商业圆桌会议周四称，最近接受调查的首席执行长中有60%预计将在今后几个月中裁员。
该机构主席、麦格劳-希尔公司首席执行长麦克格罗说，随着经济形势持续走软，我们的首席执行长会员们预计近期的销售、资本开支和用工人数也将下滑。
劳动用工专家表示，首席执行长们在削减成本方面行动很快，包括裁员，他们常常在业务开始出现困难之前就着手了。AT&T近期报导三季度增幅为5.5%。软件供应商奥多比系统周三表示，将裁减600人，占员工数的8%，虽然该公司预计第四财政季度利润将增长18%-21%。奥多比系统人士表示，过去这个月销售已开始放缓。
咨询公司Mercer LLC的全球薪酬事务负责人格罗斯说，一些企业因预计将有长期衰退而提前采取预防性的裁员措施。他说，如果你知道自己6个月内就需要人手，你肯定不会裁员。但是，他们可能12个月或者更长时间内不需要这些员工……企业希望确保他们能保持盈利。
格罗斯说，他相信，大多数公司都是在特定部门或地区裁员，而不是在全公司到处裁员。比如AT&T就表示，将在业务增长的部门继续招聘新员工，包括无线服务和视频部门。格罗斯说，对那个规模的企业而言，4%还是相对较小的一个数字。
其它公司表示，它们也对收入的快速下滑采取了对策。杜邦管理人员称，继第三季度销量下降4%之后，10月和11月的销量又下降了15%。首席执行长贺利得在公司电话会议上向分析师表示，许多客户都大幅削减产量以降低库存。杜邦称将裁员2,500人，占其员工总数的4%左右。
紧缩开支的情形还将在各经济领域继续上演。AT&T和杜邦称，它们将削减资本支出，这将波及它们的供应商。对AT&T而言，这包括北电网络和阿尔卡特朗讯等设备供应商。北电网络上月称将裁员1,300人；而阿尔卡特朗讯将在从去年开始的重组中裁员16,500人。
AT&T称，裁员将从本月开始，并将持续到明年。该公司将在第四季度计入约6亿美元用于支付遣散费。AT&T并未透露具体将在哪些部门裁员，但其传统的固定电话服务受到本轮经济低迷的影响最大。
尽管AT&T的利润仍在增长，但管理人员预计衰退将加剧长期存在的固定电话业务萎缩的难题。消费者用手机替代家庭电话、住宅电话及宽频市场上有线供应商不断加剧的竞争压力都对固定电话造成了巨大冲击。第三季度，AT&T流失了100万住宅固定电话用户，业务收入减少了1.4%。
AT&T的主要竞争对手Verizon Communications Inc.10月份曾表示，将在固话业务裁员2,700人，其中多为管理人员。AT&T和Verizon都表示，正在增长的业务部门仍在继续招聘员工，如无线和新兴的电视服务领域。AT&T发言人称，许多加入工会的员工在被裁员后仍有资格申请这些职位。
其它电信公司也在裁员。意大利电讯周四称，将在6月份裁员5,000人的基础上再裁员4,000人。美国无线供应商Sprint Nextel Corp.最近开始对部分员工提出了一次性补偿的自愿离职方案，但没有透露具体有多少员工会受到影响。
Avis Budget将裁员2,200人，约占员工总数的7%。这家汽车租赁公司还冻结了管理层薪酬，并将关闭不盈利的机场外门店并调整车辆数量。
在媒体行业中，维亚康姆和通用电气旗下的NBC Universal也在裁员，因该行业预计明年的广告收入将会大幅下降。虽然此前预计今年的奥运会和总统大选能推动广告收入增长，但实际收入仍出现下滑，到年底裁员也就不期而至了。据Bernstein Research称，预计今年的电视广告收入总额将下降1.9%，明年将下降5%。
维亚康姆周四称，将裁员850人，占其员工总数的7%。知情人士透露，裁员将主要来自于MTV Networks节目制作部门。但维亚康姆的裁员将遍及全公司，包括派拉蒙电影公司和BET Networks。
在NBC Universal，裁员也将波及公司各个部门，但其拥有的10个本地NBC电视台可能更为严重，这些区域的广告市场尤为糟糕。NBC Universal称，将裁员500人，占全部员工的3%，这是其10月份宣布的5亿美元成本节约计划的一部分。
同样在周四，报业集团Gannett Co.称，据此前宣布的在Community Publishing Division部门裁员约10%的计划，将裁减约2,000名员工。这个部门包括有83种日报。RealNetworks Inc.称，将裁员130人，约占全部员工的7.5%。知情人士称，作为重组计划的一部分，预计出版公司Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Co.将在其5,300名全职员工中裁员数百人。
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发表于 2016-8-12 16:31:51