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Up to 330 research and development staff could be sacked, many of them in Oulu.
Nokia announced on Friday that it is seriously considering laying-off up to 330 research and development staff, two percent of its ‘R and D’ workforce. The job losses are most likely to impact the 230 workers at its Oulu site as well as the 100-strong workforce which it employs in Copenhagen.
The company currently employs 17,000 people in research and development and has 2000 employees in Oulu alone, as well as 1000 in Copenhagen.
Nokia is a company in decline and has been hit particularly badly by the recession. Though it is still the biggest player in the world of smart phones, it has seen its dominance challenged by Rivals such as Apple and ‘Research in Motion.’ According to the company’s latest quarterly report, it now controls 35 percent of the Smart Phone Market. In the previous quarterly report it controlled 50 percent of the market.
Apple has also surpassed Nokia in terms of mobile phone sales overall. Nokia’s third quarter results reveal a 20 percent slump in profits and a loss of 832 million dollars.
The cell phone giant launched a cost-cutting programme last January, after its income collapsed as buyers cut back on handsets during the global financial crisis.
The programme aims to create more than 700 million euros in yearly savings. Until Friday, Nokia had announced 3,700 job reductions since January. This included 1,300 voluntary redundancy packages.
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