Sony Corp. has announced a major restructuring plan. It will be cutting about 16,000 jobs worldwide — 8,000 regular jobs and another 8,000 irregular jobs — by the end of fiscal 2009 (March 31, 2010). The 8,000 regular jobs account for about 5 percent of Sony's 160,000-strong worldwide workforce in its electronics division.
Carmakers also have started dismissing irregular employees. Sony's move shows that the impact of the global economic slowdown triggered by the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis has spread to electronics makers as well. It could be an ominous harbinger of major companies' firing both regular and irregular workers in large numbers.
Sony posted record net profit for the 2007 fiscal year ended last March 31. But expectations that Sony's net profit for the current fiscal year will drop by 60 percent from the previous year to ¥150 billion has forced the firm to adopt the restructuring plan.