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BMW to cut 5,600 jobs by end of 2008, says 2,500 others have already been eliminated

Submitted by: John Warner on Feb 28, 2008 at 9:20 am Tagged with: Automotive, Economic Development Source: BMW

MUNICH, Germany: Luxury car maker BMW AG said Wednesday it will cut another 5,600 jobs by the end of 2008, on top of 2,500 other positions that have already been eliminated, as it moves to pare expenses amid a wider cost-cutting program.

Speaking to reporters in Munich, where the company is based, BMW's head of personnel, Ernst Baumann, said that the jobs being cut include 2,500 full-time and 2,500 temporary workers in Germany, along with 600 other positions abroad, primarily international sales and distribution positions.

"What matters to us is that bringing the head count down must happen on a voluntary basis" when the permanent positions are eliminated, Baumann said.

He said that another 2,500 positions — all of them temporary — had already been eliminated, bringing the total number of cuts and planned cuts to 8,100 positions, or 7.5 percent of the company's total work force, both permanent and temporary. The cuts to its permanent work force, which totals 80,000 worldwide, account for 3 percent of its staffers.

Rest of the story at International Herald Tribune