Global recession claims 67,000 jobs in a day

The depth of the global recession was glimpsed today when almost 80,000 jobs were lost or put under threat in the UK, Europe and US, making it one of the bleakest days in recent memory.

Household names, including electronics retailer Philips, construction equipment maker Caterpillar and drug group Pfizer announced thousands of job losses, with many posts expected to be lost in the UK. Steel company Corus, for instance, is axing 2,500 British workers as it dumps 3,500 worldwide.

Even upper-crust London retailer Fortnum & Mason, which can trace its roots back to 1705, is suffering. It emerged yesterday that the Piccadilly-based department store is looking to cut about 100 of its 530 staff as shoppers seek out cheaper alternatives to products such as its £500 picnic hampers stuffed with champagne, vintage marmalade and smoked salmon.

The scale of the challenge faced by world leaders as they grapple with the worst economic downturn since the second world war was underlined yesterday as Gordon Brown issued a stark warning that the global economy will be undermined unless countries work together to tackle the crisis. The prime minister said the world needed to "ensure that we do not experience a new form of financial protectionism, of mercantilism, of retreat into domestic financial markets".

In the US, where General Motors cut 2,000 jobs, President Barack Obama warned it was imperative that Congress pass his $825bn (£590bn) package of spending and tax cuts as soon as possible. "We cannot afford distractions," he said. "We cannot afford delays in getting legislation to boost the economy through Congress."

New research from the Institute of Directors showed British business leaders are not only pessimistic about their companies' prospects but have recently seen a marked deterioration in performance.

"In previous IoD surveys, companies were saying it's going to be hell out there in the future but we're not doing too badly at present. Now they're saying the problem is much closer to home," said the IoD chief economist and director of policy, Graeme Leach."We're a long way into the financial crisis but the economic crisis is only just beginning."

Managers across the UK, meanwhile, have accepted their own redundancy as "inevitable", according to the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), which has examined recent calls to its helpline. "Quite clearly, any suggestion that there is already light at the end of the tunnel is misplaced," said Ruth Spellman, chief executive of the CMI.

The job losses announced yesterday fell mainly across industry. Europe's largest consumer electronics company Philips is shedding 6,000 jobs after announcing its first loss for half a decade. US mobile phone company Spring Nextel is axing 8,000 and Pfizer is shedding 19,000.

But the biggest losses announced yesterday were from Caterpillar. The Illinois-based manufacturer of heavy-duty earth-moving equipment is cutting almost 20% of its workforce – or 20,000 people. The news has raised fears for the company's 10,000 employees in the UK, which is Caterpillar's largest operation outside the US, and Ireland. It has factories dotted across the UK from Teesside, Leicester and Peterborough to Shrewsbury and Slough. In Ireland its electricity generator business FG Wilson is Europe's largest assembler of generators.

sourced from The Guardian