IT jobs crisis continues

Jobs are being culled from top IT companies as the recession bites and sales plummet.

Telco WorldCom is to cut a tenth of its European workforce, some 1000 jobs, as part of cost cutting measures that will see back-office functions like human resources and finance centralised in one office.

Philips said on Monday that it had axed almost half the staff at its non-core Assembleon unit, which makes equipment used to place chips onto circuit boards.

The firm said it expects its chips sales to fall by 17 to 18 per cent this year, and has now unveiled plans to cut 11,000 staff this year.

Meanwhile, in the US business intelligence software firm Microstrategy bid farewell to an additional 175 staff, leaving a workforce of 825. The firm employed 2300 at its peak last year. Microstrategy shares have crashed from a high of $333 in March 2000 to a fraction over $1.