Renesas Technology Corp, the world’s largest privately held chipmaker, said it was planning to cut 1,000 temporary jobs by March 31, eliminating all such workers.
The Tokyo-based company has about 26,000 full-time employees, spokesman Hirotaka Ohno said by telephone yesterday.
He declined to comment on the extent of personnel cuts prior to the 1,000 jobs that will be eliminated from next month.
Japanese chipmakers are joining electronics firms and automobile manufacturers in cutting workers to reduce costs and weather slumping demand as the global recession deepens.
Japan’s economy shrank an annualized 1.8 percent in the third quarter, the country’s first recession since 2001, the Cabinet Office said earlier this month.
Sony Corp’s announcement on Dec. 9 that it would cut 8,000 temporary workers and 8,000 full-time jobs is the largest culling in Japan since the global credit crunch drove the world into a recession.
AUTO JOB CUTS
Auto companies Toyota Motor Corp and Isuzu Motor Ltd, as well as Komatsu Ltd, the world’s second-biggest maker of earthmovers, have also announced job cuts for temporary employees in the past month.
Sanyo Electric Co, whose photonics business makes chips for lasers, would cut 460 temporary jobs by March 31, spokeswoman Kumiko Makino said by telephone yesterday.
The Osaka-based company’s electronic devices unit would bear the brunt of the cuts, losing 180 workers, she said.
Rohm Co, which in October bought a 95 percent stake in Oki Electric Industry Co’s chip unit, last month said full-time job cuts would total 500 employees by March 31.
The newly purchased unit will lose about 600 people, or 10 percent of the unit’s workforce, it said.
Sharp Corp, Japan’s biggest maker of liquid-crystal-display televisions, would not renew contracts of 160 workers starting from next month, spokeswoman Miyuki Nakayama said.
Fujitsu Ltd, a Japanese maker of chips for servers, mobile phones and flat-panel TVs, said earlier this week that it was planning to cut about 400 jobs at its domestic factories by the end of March.
The reduction is almost four times the number announced earlier because of a slump in sales, the company said.
NO RENEWALS
Tokyo-based Fujitsu would reduce the number of temporary workers at its seven factories by not renewing labor contracts when they expire, spokesman Toshiyuki Fukuoka said on Tuesday.
Fujitsu would extend a halt in its output for holidays for longer than last year, Fukuoka said.
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