Search: Finance crisis claims government, 85,000 jobs

AFP - Tuesday, January 27

NEW YORK (AFP) - - Companies forecast more than 85,000 job cuts in a single day as the rampant financial crisis hit workers in factories and offices across the globe and brought down a government on Monday.

In a sign of the deepening social impact of the US-born crisis, several companies announced an avalanche of cuts, piling pressure on US President Barack Obama as he pushes a stimulus plan for the world's biggest economy.

The financial catastrophe also claimed a scalp as Iceland's Prime Minister Geir Haarde announced the resignation of his government after months of protests over economic policies that brought the country close to bankruptcy.

Obama warned the recession-hit United States could not afford delays in Congress over his 825-billion-dollar (630-billion-euro) stimulus plan.

He called for "swift and extraordinary" action, after earlier saying the downturn could get "dramatically worse."

In New York, construction equipment giant Caterpillar said it planned 20,000 job cuts worldwide to cope with plunging sales.

New York-based drug maker Pfizer announced it would acquire its rival Wyeth for 68 billion dollars, the largest pharmaceutical takeover deal in nearly a decade amid a dearth of corporate dealmaking due in part to a credit squeeze.

It said it would also cut its global workforce by around 10 percent -- meaning at least 8,000 posts cut in a company that currently employs almost 82,000 people in more than 150 countries.

General Motors announced plans Monday to cut 2,000 jobs at two US plants as it prepares to submit a long-term viability plan in exchange for billions in loans from the US government.

US telecom operator Sprint Nextel announced 8,000 cuts -- 14 percent of its staff -- and top US home improvement retailer Home Depot said it would cut 7,000.

Japan's top 12 automakers expect to cut a total of 25,000 jobs between now and the end of March, a survey by Jiji Press concluded on Monday.

Dutch banking and insurance group ING announced 7,000 job cuts and a deal for the Dutch state to guarantee billions of euros' worth of troubled assets.

Dutch electronics giant Philips said it would eliminate 6,000 jobs.

The announcements by the two Dutch companies came ahead of confirmation that Europe's second-biggest steelmaker, Indian-owned Corus, said it would cut more than 3,500 jobs around the world, most of them in Britain.

Workers arriving early Monday were gloomy about their prospects. "People feel gutted. I have already had to take a 10 percent pay cut," said 45-year-old Douglas Mayhill, a worker at a Corus plant in Port Talbot, southern Wales.

"I was told on Friday I have a choice -- either accept a 10 percent pay cut or take redundancy -- that is no choice."

The US Congress was meanwhile due to begin debate this week on Obama's stimulus bill, designed to haul the US economy out of a paralysing recession.

In his first presidential radio address at the weekend, Obama raised the spectre of double-digit unemployment and a massive erosion of family incomes if Congress did not act on the bill.

Obama was to meet later this week with Republican leaders hostile to the bill. The lower House of Representatives was expected to vote Wednesday on the stimulus, with the Senate to follow later.

European shares surged on Monday however with sharp gains in the banking sector on positive news from British group Barclays, whose share price surged more than 75 percent on unexpectedly strong profit expectations, analysts said.

London closed 3.86 percent higher, Paris added 3.73 percent and Frankfurt climbed 3.54 percent.

US stocks opened narrowly mixed with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.25 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq edged up 0.08 percent.

**Source**