TOKYO, Oct. 31 (Kyodo) — Electronic parts maker TDK Corp. said Monday it will cut around 12 percent of its group-wide workforce within one to two years to streamline operations in the face of falling earnings.
The planned cut of about 11,000 jobs is expected to reduce costs by 20 billion yen, said TDK, which had 88,449 workers on its payroll at home and abroad as of September 30.
TDK will also pull the plug on unprofitable operations and sell idle assets in a bid to turn around its operations, hit hard by the yen's steep appreciation and increasing competition.
TDK on Monday posted a group net profit of 6.72 billion yen for the April-September period, down 74.3 percent from a year earlier, on sales of 417.16 billion yen, down 5.7 percent.
For the full business year to March 31, 2012, the company slashed its net profit forecast to 20 billion yen from the 50 billion yen figure announced this summer, and its sales projection to 820 billion yen from 890 billion yen, blaming the revision on the yen's appreciation and suspended operations in flood-hit Thailand.
The revised profit and sales projections spell respective falls of 55.8 percent and 6.4 percent from the previous year.