Top companies that announced job cuts recently

Of late, a bevy of companies, including big conglomerates and MNCs, have announced lay-off plans in the name of restructuring and sales growth. Let's check out some of the big firms that have announced job cuts recently-

HTC

Handset maker HTC said on August 13, 2015 that it will slash its headcount by 15 per cent globally, a move that could impact as many as 2,000 jobs.

Reason: The Taiwanese firm posted its biggest ever loss in the second quarter this year. HTC had posted a loss of 8.0 billion Taiwanese Dollar ($252.7 million) for the second quarter as against a net profit of $2.26 billion in the same period, last year.

Lenovo

Beijing-based world's biggest maker of PCs plans to lay off 10 per cent (3,200 jobs) of white-collar staff after sales of Motorola handsets fell by a third, raising doubts over the personal computer giant's bet that a money-losing brand it bought for nearly $3 billion will help it become a global smartphone leader.

Reason: It said its quarterly net profit was halved as its mobile division lost nearly $300 million.

Vedanta

The Anil Agarwal-led company has signaled in July that it may go for huge job cuts in its aluminium business unit.

Reason: Aluminium prices on the London Metal Exchange (LME) are hovering around six-year lows, leading to a 75 per cent fall in margins for firms like Vedanta and Hindalco.

Barclays

The Times reported recently the London-based financial services company is planning to cut over 30,000 jobs within two years after firing Chief Executive Antony Jenkins. The move will reduce the bank's workforce below 1,00,000 by 2017 end. However, Barclays has denied any fresh lay-off plans. The Bank had announced in May 2014 that it will slash 19,000 jobs.

Reason: The move is aimed at addressing bank's chronic underperformance and doubling its share price.

Microsoft

The US-based tech giant announced in early July that it will cut 7,800 jobs across the globe. This is the second round of lay-offs by the American company.

In February 2014, it announced it would slash jobs up to 18,000.

Reason: Under Satyla Nadella, the company has planned to hang-up its Nokia phone business and is shifting its focus to software and cloud-based services.

HSBC Bank

Europe's largest bank by assets announced in June that it will slash a massive 50,000 jobs across the globe.

Reason: The bank has been struggling with sluggish growth since last few years. Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver made it his mission to boost profits since taking the helm of Europe's largest bank by assets in 2011 but his efforts have so far been foiled by high compliance costs, fines and low interest rates.

Sony

The Japanese mobile phone manufacturing company has decided to cut 1,000 jobs in Sweden, which is one of the key manufacturing and R&D centres of the company.

Reason: THe move is aimed at restructuring of the handset maker to turn it into a profitable entity.

BlackBerry

The Canada-based tech firm has also announced lay-off plans in May this year. However, it has not disclosed the exact figure.

Reason: The move is part of the company's goal of boosting sales of higher margin mobile-management and security software to reignite growth.

Schlumberger

It is the world's largest oilfield services company with principal offices in Paris, Houston, London, and the Hague. The firm announced in April that will further slash 11,000 jobs after announcing plans to eliminate 9,000 jobs earlier.

Reason: It reported lowest first quarter profit in four years in April.