The Japanese electronics manufacturer Pioneer has announced that it will lay off 10,000 workers as it expects a revenue drop of $1.4 billion. Heavily impacted by the crisis, it already laid off 5,900 people last year.
The leading figures of the multinational company Pioneer announced that they will shut down the facilities that produce flat-screen televisions as they are not generating any profit. This move has been quite painful for them as Pioneer was once a leading manufacturer in the high-quality television market. Of the 10,000 workers it plans to lay off, six thousand are permanently employed, including people from Japan and abroad, while four thousand are on fixed-term contracts, also from Japan and beyond. The company currently has 36,900 employees worldwide. Since the world fell into economic recession, sales of automotive electronic products and flat-screen televisions have dropped at an incredible rate, stated the spokesperson for the Japanese ‘high-tech’ company Michiko Kadoi.
Although it was one of the first companies to start selling LCD and plasma televisions, it has not managed to gain a larger share of the global television market. Furthermore, figures show that Pioneer held only six percent of the global TV device market share in the first nine months of last year, which is quite disappointing compared to rivals such as Panasonic, which had 37 percent share, and Samsung, which held 23 percent. Most Japanese electronics manufacturers have been significantly affected by the recession as most consumers worldwide are trying to save every penny. Sony also warned last month that it will post a loss for the first time in 14 years of operation and will have to lay off eight thousand employees globally. (T.Vi.)
