Alcatel alerts industry to India layoffs

Alcatel-Lucent has revealed plans to cut its Indian workforce by 1,000 people as the company struggles in a weakening global economy.

The French telecom equipment maker says due to the slow demand for equipment, they plan to reduce their workforce in the country by 9% as part of the company's global restructuring drive.

After confirming to the market that they were absolutely cutting a minimum of 5,000 jobs across the globe to save costs in July, the company operated at a US$312m loss during the second quarter.

The majority of the job cuts is rumoured to come from the company's business support services which currently employ around 7,000 people across India.

With shares currently down 35.9% year-to-date, Alcatel is not the only telecommunications company to make job cuts, following Nokia's announcement of 17,000 job losses within the industry earlier this year.

Alcatel, who signed a distribution agreement with Kiwi IT firm Connector Systems in May, has yet to reveal the location of any further job cuts.