Ericsson (Stockholm, Sweden) is set to cut up to 1,000 jobs in research and development globally in the next few months to reduce costs, according to a senior Ericsson source. “Worldwide, I estimate it will be between 100 and 1,000 jobs. In spring, mainly in the development part of the unit,” the source stated. “It's likely to be a few hundred in the mobile unit and a few hundred in the fixed-line research and development unit.”
The source also stated that the job cuts would be on top of the already-announced staff reductions of one-fifth of the workforce, launched last year under an efficiency program to return the company to profit. In November, Ericsson's US spokesman Gary Pinkham told fund mangers in New York that the company may need to cut more jobs through more discreet action to reach the firm's goal of a five-percent operating margin in 2002.
