This January, Nokia estimated that sales of mobile telephones in the coming year would decline by ten per cent from last year. This means a reduction in sales equal to 100 million handsets. According to a February press release, in Finland Nokia plans to close one site and concentrate its mobile devices research and development unit at sites in just four Finnish cities.
Approximately 320 white collar workers at the R&D site will also be laid off and the site will be closed by the end of 2009.
In addition, some factory workers will be laid off. The temporary lay-offs will affect about 20-30 per cent of employees, but production will not be interrupted. All these measures are made to adjust production to market demand and safeguard future competitiveness, the news release said.
As expected, the company aims to cut operation costs by 700 million Euros by the end of next year. The greatest number of jobs will be lost in the United States and Britain as Nokia is planning to cut 1,000 jobs in countries outside of Finland, mainly in its marketing and strategy unit.
These plans will affect 1700 jobs globally in R&D, according to the Finnish newspaper, Helsinging Sanomat.
