TOKYO: Panasonic Corp., Japan's biggest home appliance maker, is cutting about 17,000 jobs worldwide over two years as its losses swell from restructuring costs and damage from the March 11 disasters. President Fumio Ohtsubo said the company will streamline operations to boost profitability, including selling some of its businesses, and reduce its nearly 367,000 workers to 350,000 by the fiscal year ending March 2013. Like other Japanese electronics makers including archrival Sony Corp., Panasonic has been struggling against competition from newcomers and formidable players from South Korea like Samsung Electronics Co., the world leader in flat-panel TVs. Panasonic has been steadily trimming its workforce to reduce costs. About a year ago it had 385,000 workers. Osaka-based Panasonic reported a 40.7 billion yen ($499 million) loss for the January-March quarter Thursday. The loss was largely due to 61 billion yen ($748 million) in restructuring costs, it said. Panasonic had reported an 8.89 billion yen loss for the same period the previous year. The maker of Viera flat-panel TVs and Lumix digital cameras said its bottom line was also hurt by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan, which stalled production because of parts shortages and curbed consumer spending amid the ensuing nuclear reactor crisis. Panasonic said it was unable to give forecasts for the fiscal year that began April 1 because it could not yet calculate the full damage from the disasters. It said the disasters shaved 21 billion yen ($258 million) off its operating profit for the fiscal year ended March 31.
