Panasonic cuts 15,000 jobs

The job cuts represent about 5% of its 300,000 global workforce with half of the cuts taking place in Japan and the other half overseas. The Japanese electronics group is expecting a net loss of 380billion Yen (£2.9bn) for the financial year to 31 March. Panasonic director, Makoto Uenoyama, said: “Sales fell in all our business segments in the third quarter. We expect sharper sales declines in this quarter and profits are likely to shrink in every segment.” This is the latest in a line of Japanese companies hit by the recession, with NEC announcing 20,000 redundancies, Hitachi warning of 7000 job cuts and Honda lowered its profits for the fourth successive time. Hiromichi Shirakawa and Satoru Ogasawara of Credit Suisse told the BBC: “It is now clear that the Japanese economy fell off a cliff in the final quarter of last year.”