Our Business News

PARIS Sanofi’s plan to restructure its research operations in France could lead to more job losses than the 900 layoffs mooted by the drugmaker, union representatives said. Unions said the company’s figure underestimated the number of job cuts as Sanofi reshuffles its laboratories into regional research hubs at the expense of smaller centers. “There are thousands of employees that will be hit by layoffs and a high number of internal transfers,” Pascal Vially, a representative for the CFDT trade union, told Reuters. Sanofi has scaled back planned layoffs under pressure from the French government, which has been struggling to contain [...]

U.S.-based employers announced plans to cut 33,816 jobs in September, up 4.9% from 32,229 in August, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Last month’s total was 71% lower than a year ago. Employers announced 102,910 job cuts in the third quarter, down 27% from the previous quarter and 56% lower than the third quarter of 2011. It was the lowest quarterly total since the second quarter of 2000, when planned layoffs numbered 81,568.

The number of planned layoffs at U.S. companies dropped for the second month in a row in July, even as job cuts in the financial sector persisted, a report showed on Thursday.. Jobn  Employers announced 36,855 planned job cuts last month, down 1.9% from 37,551 in June, according to the report from consultants Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.  Job cuts were also well off levels of July last year when 66,414 layoffs were announced. For 2012 so far, employers have announced 319,946 cuts, up 2.5% from the 312,220 reductions in the first seven months of 2011.  The financial sector cut [...]