Swedish telecoms giant Ericsson this afternoon confirmed reports of a further 2,000 layoffs in its mobile handsets division in addition to the company-wide 10,000 job cuts announced earlier today.
Ms Pia Gideon, vice president external relations, said: "The 10,000 job cuts are related to the efficiency program to save 20 billion Swedish Krone. On top of that we are continuing to streamline our consumer products division and there we see additional job cuts of 2,000."
She said the process of cutting jobs in this division has already begun but declined to comment as to when it will be completed.
Eircsson's spokesman Mr Mads Madsen, told ireland.comit was too early to say if Irish jobs would be lost. He said a process to decide how to implement the job cuts had only just begun.
Eircsson employs 2,300 people in the State.
It also reported a pre-tax profit of euro 67 million for the first three months of the year, in line with its revised first-quarter forecast last month and with analysts' expectations.
"A general economic downturn and an abruptly slower telecom sector are affecting our customers as well as us," Ericsson chief executive officer Mr Kurt Hellstroem said in a statement.
"Many operators are postponing their investments, which has resulted in an overall reduction of sales."
The company acknowledged continuing problems in its handset division. It said a variety of market factors had resulted in "higher losses in our mobile phones business than we anticipated."
Additional reporting AFP