BBC to cut 90 jobs in news by 2010

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) News has announced its decision to sack nearly 90 jobs by 2010.

The Mirror online reported that the bulk of the cuts are to take place in the news gathering team that will help save the group around 155 million pounds.

The BBC also plans to plough over 70 million pounds into areas such as foreign coverage and on-demand news.

"The BBC is working hard to minimise compulsory redundancies. It is a tough, but necessary process," said a channel spokesperson Wednesday.

Bank of America to slash more than 30,000 jobs

 Bank of America Corp, the third-largest US bank, has announced to slash between 30,000 to 35,000 jobs over the next three years because of the weak economic environment and its acquisition of Merrill Lynch.

The final number of jobs to be cut is to be determined early next year, said the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank, which will be the country's largest financial services firm when the deal with Merrill Lynch closes over the next few weeks.

"The reductions are designed to eliminate redundancies created as a result of the merger with Merrill Lynch and to reflect the current recessionary environment," a statement from the bank said Thursday.

The cuts will be made in both companies. As of September, Bank of America had 247,000 employees, while Merrill Lynch - the world's largest securities brokerage - had 60,900 employees at the end of the third quarter.

As the US grapples with the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, Bank of America becomes the latest firm to announce a massive job cut. Citigroup has already said it would eliminate 53,000 jobs in the new year.

Tata-owned Corus to axe 400 jobs

Corus, owned by the Tata Steel Group, has announced plans to cut 400 jobs at its distribution arm, saying it had been operating in a "volatile and fluctuating" market.

The proposed job losses will be spread across Britain, including 100 in the West Midlands, nearly 100 in North Wales, 50 in South Wales and 50 in Leeds, the steel giant said Thursday.

"The impact and continuation of the global economic downturn is having a major effect on steel customers in the automotive, construction and plant and machinery markets. Since September, the business has seen a significant decline in demand," the company said.

"As a result, Corus Distribution has introduced a series of actions to reduce expenditure on transport, consumables, energy and other discretionary spending. However, these actions alone will not be sufficient to offset the decline in the market."

"Corus Distribution is committed to ensuring it will do everything possible to assist those people leaving the business, and will be putting in place a range of support services designed to help them through this difficult time," it added.

Corus Distribution employs 2,400 workers at 36 sites in Britain and Ireland.

Roy Rickhuss of the steelworkers' union Community said: "We welcomed the original Corus approach to the current downturn - to avoid knee-jerk reactions and not just cut jobs - so we are disappointed this has not been followed in Corus Distribution.

"Support will be available from Community's education and training arm, Communitas, to help redundant workers retrain and find new employment."

Air Canada axes 2,000 jobs, flights to cut costs

Air Canada Tuesday announced it would axe 2,000 jobs this year to meet the rising fuel costs.
Canada's premier airline was also scaling back flights on some long-haul routes as well as autumn and winter services in North America.
In a statement, Air Canada president and CEO Montie Brewer said: "The loss of jobs is painful in view of our employees' hard work in bringing the airline back to profitability over the past four years.

"I regret having to take these actions but they are necessary to remain competitive going forward. Air Canada, like most global airlines, needs to adapt its business and reduce flying that has become unprofitable in the current fuel environment."
He warned that if fuel prices remain at current levels, "we can anticipate further capacity reductions."
Voted the best airline in North America in the 2007 Skytrax World Airline Awards, Air Canada has been struggling to cut costs as each extra dollar it pays on fuel imposes an additional annual burden of $26 million on it.
The airline, which spends 30 percent of its budget on fuel, said it will be forced to shell out an additional $1 billion on it .
The long-haul routes on the chop include the Toronto-Rome and Vancouver-Osaka non-stop flights, thus reducing its international services by seven percent.
From the last quarter of this year and the first quarter of 2009, the airline will scale back domestic flights by two percent and trans-border (US) flights by 13 percent.

Employers slash jobs by most in 5 years

Employers slashed jobs by 63,000 in February, the most in five years, the starkest sign yet the country is heading dangerously toward recession or is in one already.
The Labor Department's report, released Friday, also showed that the nation's unemployment rate dipped to 4.8 percent as hundreds of thousands of people — perhaps discouraged by their prospects — left the civilian labor force. The jobless rate was 4.9 percent in January.

Job losses were widespread, with hefty cuts coming from construction, manufacturing, retailing and a variety of professional and business services. Those losses swamped gains elsewhere including education and health care, leisure and hospitality, and the government.
The latest snapshot of the nation's employment climate underscored the heavy toll of the housing and credit crises on companies, jobseekers and the overall economy.