TOKYO (AP) -- Isuzu Motors Ltd. will shed all temporary and part-time manufacturing workers, a spokeswoman said Thursday, the latest of Japan's automakers to scale back production as overseas demand fades.
The elimination of the 1,400 contract workers will happen in the remaining two months of this year as the Japanese truck maker cuts output, according to the spokeswoman, Ai Ito.
The company has 7,700 full-time employees with 7,000 working in manufacturing.
Isuzu, like its domestic peers, is grappling with lower sales abroad. The company, which gets about 65 percent of its revenue outside of Japan, earlier this month cut forecasts for the fiscal year through March 2009.
It now plans to scale back annual truck production about 10 percent, to 249,000 vehicles from 277,000.
Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. have also slashed their production estimates and profit targets for the fiscal year.
Government data released Thursday showed the country posted a trade deficit in October as exports plunged, the second trade deficit in three months.
The country slipped into recession in the third quarter for the first time in seven years.
