The world's leading mobile phone maker Nokia said on Feb. 10 it would cut almost 560 jobs in its home country Finland, in a restructuring agreed as part of a merger with Siemens of Germany.
"There will be a reduction need of 559 employees in Finland in many activities, including 282 at the Espoo factory" near Helsinki in southern Finland, Riitta Mard, a spokeswoman for Nokia Siemens Networks, said.
The closures will bring the group's workforce in Finland to 7,500 and complete the restructuring of Finnish operations under a deal the two companies made in 2007 to merge their network activities.
The group has also announced it will shed jobs in Germany, bringing its workforce there to about 10,000. Before the merger it employed 9,000 in Finland and 13,000 in Germany.
Nokia last month reported a near 69% slump in fourth-quarter earnings on falling handset prices and sales.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2009
