Rolls-Royce, Astrazeneca and Bae Join List of Job-cutting Giants

Thousands more jobs were axed today by some of Britain's leading companies, including Rolls-Royce, AstraZeneca and Bae Systems. In total, almost 4,000 posts are being cut from their global workforces, including about 600 in the UK.

The biggest cutbacks are coming at engine-maker Rolls-Royce, which plans to make up to 2,000 workers redundant in response to the economic slowdown and delays to some of its most lucrative contracts.

It will ax "around 1,500 to 2,000" jobs from its 39,000-strong global workforce, or 4% of employees, including 140 cuts next year at its assembly and test facility in Derby. The reductions are in addition to the program of 2,300 job losses the company announced in January, which is now nearly complete. Following the latest rounds of redundancies, the group will have reduced its workforce by about 10%.

Rolls-Royce is consulting with employee representatives about the job losses in Derby, its UK home for 100 years. It blamed delays on individual programs, including the Airbus A380 and Boeing 787, for the cuts but also warned "economic uncertainties" meant it had to reduce its cost base.

The chief executive, Sir John Rose, said: "We are determined to maintain our focus on cost reduction and competitiveness as the world economy enters a challenging period. It is too early to determine the precise effects of the global economic downturn and program delays. However, we wanted to give all our employees an early indication of the likely scale of the job reductions we expect in 2009."

The company said it hoped to keep compulsory redundancies to a minimum by laying off temporary staff and by not replacing staff who retire. Rolls-Royce said it was too early to say where the ax would fall. It has staff in more than 50 countries, although 60% of its workforce - about 22,100 people - are in the UK.

Pharmaceuticals giant AstraZeneca announced 1,400 job cuts today with the closure of three sites in Spain, Belgium and Sweden by 2013. That is expected to lead to about 250 job losses over the next five years at its plant in Macclesfield, Cheshire, where 3,000 people are employed. Separately, the company said it was investing in its manufacturing and packaging plant in China.

defense company Bae is to axe 200 jobs in the UK, citing cuts in government spending on the armed forces. It said the Minsitry of defense was spending less on its armored fighting vehicles program, leading to job losses in its land system business which will affect plants at Newcastle, Leeds, Barrow, Telford and Leicester. The company has launched a voluntary redundancy program.