Siemens to axe another 5,000 jobs

German company Siemens today said it will cut 5,000 more jobs, 2,000 of them at home, by the end of next year.

The job losses will be at its fixed-line telecommunications division where half of the production facilities would also be closed.

The Information and Communication Networks division has already been hit with 5,500 cuts this year, part of more than 10,000 across the entire company.

‘‘We have launched a programme of cost cutting and profit improvement with a target of £1.25bn in savings and positive earnings effects,’’ Thomas Ganswindt, president of ICN, said in a statement.

‘‘We will achieve this by focusing on our customers and our product offerings as well as by concentrating on our traditional strengths.’’

The division makes switching systems and other telecommunications infrastructure equipment.

In the second quarter, Siemens posted a loss of £302m, excluding one-time gains and charges.

That prompted chief executive Heinrich von Pierer to cut his forecast for earnings this year and say the company would soon roll out cost-cutting plans.

Siemens’ fixed-line unit and mobile telecom unit lost a combined total of £680m in the second quarter.

The company statement did not say where the 3,000 jobs outside Germany would be lost, or where plants would be closed.

Munich-based Siemens, which makes everything from light bulbs to power plants, employs 460,000 people worldwide.