AMD Expected To Cut 1,100 Jobs

With a worsening economy and poor sales it should come as a surprise that AMD has been forced to make cutbacks. According to AMD the company plans to cut 1,100 jobs - or roughly 9% of its global staff. In all the company will lay off 900 employees at various levels of its product business, and will shed a further 200 positions through attrition and by divesting its handheld business, according to spokeswoman Hollis Krym.

These cuts will be the third round of layoffs for the chip manufacturer in the last year with the latest round of cuts coming back in November when AMD laid off 500 workers. The largest of the three cutbacks came when AMD laid off 1,600 employees in April of 2008.

In addition to the layoff the company will be cutting salaries, cutting overtime pay and suspending matching contributions for U.S. employees' 401k retirement investment funds.

AMD will announce its Q4-08 earnings after market close on Thursday, January 22, 2009. At this time its unclear how just how much the losses for the fourth quarter will be however if they are inline with the recent Intel numbers they will be significant.

AMD had a rough year in 2008 reporting losses in each of the first three quarters. In the 3Q of '08 the company reported a net loss of $67 million. In the second quarter a net loss of $1.189 billion and in the first quarter their net loss was $358 million. All told AMD has reported eighth consecutive quarterly losses. (AMD Quarterly Earnings)