Mitsubishi cuts further 1000 chip jobs

Mitsubishi is to axe another 1000 jobs from its chip division, despite unveiling similar cuts last week.

The Japanese firm said last week that 1000 jobs would go in its semiconductor division by March 2002, and has now said a further 1000 part-time jobs in the unit will go in the following year.

Mitsubishi employs around 8000 staff in its semiconductor business, about half of whom are contract workers. The firm's shares rose 4.8 per cent to 441 yen on news of the latest cuts.

In addition, 200 US jobs will go at Mitsubishi's mobile phone business, rather than the 155 as had been reported last week.

Profits for the 12 months to the end of March 2002 are expected to be around £11.6m (2bn yen), compared with earlier predictions of £436.5m (75bn yen).