Corporate bellwethers in the US and Europe slashed more than 76,000 jobs from their payrolls on Monday. US corporate groups such as Caterpillar, General Motors, Sprint Nextel, Texas Instruments, and Home Depot led the retreat, citing factors such as the domestic recession coupled with tough export markets. Pfizer, the drugs group, added to the tally saying jobs would be lost in its takeover of Wyeth, while IBM slashed more than 2,800 jobs last week. Large European companies such as Philips, financial group ING and the Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus, owned by India’s Tata Group, also unveiled plans to axe staff. In many cases, the cutbacks accompanied disappointing quarterly results or bleak outlooks for 2009.
