Olympus to Cut 27,000 Jobs

If you know the name Olympus it is probably because of the camera that is sitting in your drawer, or maybe even in a camera bag on a hook somewhere, but the company does a lot more than that. For those of you who are not familiar with the full range of the company here is a look at how Olympus describes itself in the following terms, “At Olympus, we are focused on improving people’s lives every day. We do this through innovation. As a precision technology leader, we design and deliver innovative solutions in our core business areas: Medical and Surgical Products, Life Science Imaging Systems, Industrial Measurement and Imaging Instruments and Cameras and Audio Products.”

Well it looks like the company is hoping that they can do that without a significant number of its workers. If you’re wondering why this is news then you are a very astute reader. You remember that at the end of the month of May we covered a layoff of 25,000 people by Olympus. For those of you who did not recall it here is a look at that earlier coverage, “It looks like after being hit with a major fraud scandal, one that is hitting the company for a cost of about $1.7 billion when all is said and done, is going to lead to a loss of a significant amount of workers. The fraud was instated at the highest level when the CEO, Michael Woodford, uncovered the problems and took steps to make them right, which cost the company significant funds and reputation damage. The company is getting ready to shed about 2,500 workers on the whole, according to local media in Japan. This means a cut of about 7 percent of the overall workers for the company…”

Yes, we did report that, but it looks now like things are going to be worse for the workers then it was originally thought. The company will not be getting rid of the initially believed 25,000 workers, but instead a significantly higher 27,000 workers will get the ax from their employer between now and March of 2014.

For those of you who are not familiar with the idea of a mass layoff action here is a look at how the federal government defines the term, “Monthly mass layoff numbers are from establishments which have at least 50 initial claims for unemployment insurance (UI) filed against them during a 5-week period. Extended mass layoff numbers (issued quarterly) are from a subset of such establishments—where private sector nonfarm employers indicate that 50 or more workers were separated from their jobs for at least 31 days.”

Interestingly enough when you put the scandal aside the company does not seem to be in a bad way. The company has put out some projections for the end of its fiscal year that seem very optimistic for the company as a whole. They are expecting to have a profit of about ¥7 billion this fiscal year. For those of you without a calculator handy that is about $88 million in projected profits.