Hitting hard

Depression, recession, bear market... all have translated to job scares, a slowdown in demand and panic attacks. Here is a recap of the spillover effects of the ongoing economic imbroglio in the past fortnight, across the globe.

Lay -offs

-Nissan Motor Co. to lay off 20,000 jobs worldwide by March 2010.
-Toshiba Corp. to cut 4,500 jobs.
-Panasonic to eliminate 15,000 jobs.
-Morgan Stanley to prune workforce by 1,800.

Hiring
-Global Hyatt Corp. to recruit 7,000 employees across 20 locations over the next four years.
-Atos Origin, the European IT major, plans to nearly double its workforce in India from the existing 3,300 to 6,000 next year.
-Indian Overseas Bank to hire 2,300 in Chennai.
-Tata Motors to hire over 1,650 temporary workers for its Jamshedpur plant.

 

News from boardrooms
1. Realty player BPTP has applied for the surrender of a 95-acre commercial plot in Noida that it had bought for Rs 5,006 crore, as it was unable to pay for it.
2. IBM will hire back some of the 4,000 workers it had recently laid off if they agree to move to a developing market like India.
3. Aluminium producer Nalco has postponed recruiting 700 employees.
4. Credit Suisse will cut bonuses for investment managers by 55%.
5. Reliance Retail has decided not to give performance-linked incentives.
6. Bank of America Corp. is deferring the payment of 2008 bonuses of more than $50,000. They will be paid in three annual instalments, starting February 2010.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bargains and deals
-£5 a night is the hotel room rate by the UK’s Thomson Holidays.
-6-month home EMI to be paid for a jobless person in Bengaluru by Value Designbuild.
-49 SGD (Rs 1,590) is the fare for Malaysia Airlines for some sectors.

Extras
-European carmakers—Daimler Motors, Skoda Auto and Volkswagen—are foraying into the Rs 22,000-crore auto loan market in India to fund fresh car sales.
-The service tax collection dipped by 3.6% in December 2008 as the economic slowdown spread from manufacturing to services, which account for over 55% of the country’s national income.
-According to CAPA, the average difference between the fares of lowcost carriers and full-service airlines has gone down to Rs 500-Rs 750 in January from Rs 1,500 in October-December 2008.

Corporate honchos
-Stephen Luczo, Seagate CEO's salary has been reduced by 25%, along with pay-cuts for other managers.
-Haim Romano, El Al Israel Airlines Chief Executive, to give up 15% of his salary.
-Baba Kalyani, the CMD of Bharat Forge has decided to take a 20 per cent salary cut.
-Denis Casey, Chief Executive, Irish Life and Permanent, along with directors and senior managers, will not be paid bonuses for last year.
-The CEOs of the Royal Bank of Canada (Gord Nixon), the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (Gerald McCaughey) and the Bank of Montreal (William Downe) have given up more than $15 million as compensation.

 

Quotes
Our tolerance for nonperformers is down. Earlier we put up with all kinds of stuff...all that is gone now.                                                                          — T.V. Mohandas Pai, Director, HR, Infosys
I expect by May you will find the impact of the stimulus packages... by June, we will have turned a corner and started to grow.                                                                          — Gopal K. Pillai, Commerce Secretary
With the unemployment rate at 7.2%, there is no need for companies to hire foreign workers through the H1-B program when there are plenty of qualified Americans looking for jobs.                                                                          — Chuck Grassley, US Senator

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Policies
-The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved infrastructure projects worth Rs 34,000 crore including the Chennai Metro.
-The Indian government has doubled the unemployment insurance for retrenched workers in the ESIC scheme.