Nokia announces layoff plans; 4,000 employees to lose jobs

Helsinki, Apr 27: World's largest mobile phone maker Nokia has announced its layoff plans as a part of the company's next step in transformation. According to their new plan, Nokia will lay off 4,000 employees by the end of 2012.

The planned reductions will have the greatest impact on the Symbian and MeeGo R&D. In addition, approximately 3,000 employees are planned to outsource to Accenture to support the continued delivery of Symbian software development and support services.

"At Nokia, we have new clarity around our path forward, which is focused on our leadership across smart devices, mobile phones and future disruptions. However, with this new focus, we also will face reductions in our workforce. This is a difficult reality, and we are working closely with our employees and partners to identify long-term re-employment programs for the talented people of Nokia," said Stephen Elop, Nokia president and CEO.

The Finnish company, which has been facing setbacks in the handset market after the arrival of Android devices, plans to regain its supremacy with the launch of smartphones running on Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 operating system. The layoff was declared as a part of a plan to slash annual spending by $1.46 billion.

Nokia also announced its four steps in transformation. According to Stephen Elop, creating a new winning strategy is the company's first step to transformation. The second step is creating a clear long-term strategy for profitable growth and the third is aligning its global workforce and consolidating its site operations. The final step for the transformation is launching a comprehensive social responsibility program for employees and the communities that are likely to be affected by reductions.

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