Nokia slashes 4,000 jobs as it shifts all assembly lines to Asia to cut costs
STRUGGLING Finnish phone maker Nokia plans to cut 4,000 more jobs at its plants in Finland, Hungary and Mexico as it seeks to cut costs by moving phone assembly work to Asia.
The cuts of eight per cent of the workforce bring total planned job cuts at the group since Stephen Elop took over as chief executive in September 2010 to more than 30,000.
Nokia said in a statement the job cuts would take place in phases through this year. It has been reviewing the operations since unveiling the closure of its Romania plant last September.
Nokia’s recent business results have underscored the need for drastic cuts. Late last month it reported a 73 per cent fall in quarterly earnings as sales of new Windows Phones failed to dent the dominance of Apple’s iPhone or compensate for diving sales of its own old smartphones.
Its fourth quarter smartphone sales shrank 31 per cent from a year ago and the business made a steep loss for the quarter.
Nokia said it would cut 2,300 jobs in Hungary, where it is a major exporter, some 1,000 in Finland and 700 in Mexico.
Its Finnish factory in Salo, which was the cornerstone for its success in 1990s, has been the last remaining major phone assembly plant in the Western Europe for some time. Most rivals have moved their production to Asia.