Swedish telecoms equipment maker Ericsson said today it was cutting 2,100 jobs in Sweden and stopping production at two plants in Britain as part of a cost-cutting package to help save the loss-making firm $1.96 billion from 2002.
"In today's uncertain state of the economy with negative signals, Ericsson must react, and we are now talking necessary measures," Ericsson chief executive Mr Kurt Hellstrom said in a statement.
Ericsson, the world's biggest producer of mobile networks and third biggest supplier of handsets, warned two weeks ago that it would make a $400-500 million loss in the first quarter instead of breaking even.
The new Ericsson job cuts follow heavy staff reductions at the world's second biggest mobile phone maker Motorola of the United States as technology companies world-wide were hit by a global economic slowdown which cut consumer demand.
It said it would stop mobile phone production in two British plants in Carlton and Scunthorpe where 1,200 people are employed, in the third quarter of the year and was looking for a buyer for the facilities.