Germany's Siemens To Cut 16,750 Jobs Worldwide

New York, NY (AHN) -- Siemens AG, the German-based electronics giant, plans to cut 16,750 jobs worldwide, primarily in administration-related functions.

The plans announced Tuesday on the company's Web site, call for eliminating 12,600 jobs outright, and cutting 4,150 others by restructuring job tasks.

"We want to begin negotiations with the employee representatives quickly in order to make the cuts in a way that will be as socially responsible as possible," emphasized Siemens' Chief Personnel Officer Siegfried Russwurm.

In Germany, about 5,250 jobs will be affected by the planned personnel reductions. The locations making the biggest contributions will be those with the most employees: Erlangen, Munich, Nuremberg and Berlin.

Siemens initially talked about the cuts among its worldwide force of 400,000 last November, as part of an effort to reduce sales and keep general and administrative costs to a competitive level. Siemens generates less sales and profit per employee than peers including GE, which competes with Siemens in industries such as health care and power generation. The company earned about $12,710 per employee last year, compared with $67,914 for each worker at GE, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.