Siemens to cut 15,000 jobs by autumn 2014

MUNICH, Germany -?The German engineering giant Siemens plans to cut 15,000 jobs, including 5,000 in Germany, by autumn 2014, a spokesman said here on Sunday.

Cutting 15,000 jobs is part of a 6-billion-euro cost cutting program named "Siemens 2014", which started from a year ago, the spokesman said.

The announced number of job cuts is even beyond analysts' estimation. The Welt am Sonntag newspaper had earlier reported that analysts estimate that about 10,000 jobs would be cut.

In Germany, about 2,000 jobs will be cut at the company's industry division and 1,400 each at its energy division and infrastructure division, according to the spokesman.

Siemens and its employee representatives have already reached an agreement over about half of the job cuts and both sides have had clear knowledge of the other half, which are due to be cut by next autumn, in order to end wild speculations in the market about the number of jobs which are about to be cut, the spokesman added.

The Munich-based company's total number of global workers will firstly not shrink. It still expects to close the current fiscal year on Monday with around 370,000 workers. As the spokesman said, when Siemens cuts jobs in some areas, new people will be hired in other growth areas.