Internet services major America Online plans to lay off 700 (rpt) 700 employees in the coming months, joining a string of international firms that have together slashed over 80,000 jobs in the last few days.
AOL chief executive Randy Falco sent an internal memo to employees on Wednesday about plans to cut jobs -- 700 or 10 per cent of its workforce.
It also plans to introduce other cost saving measures such as freeze on salary increases.
The announcement follows a staggering over 80,000 single- day job-cut declarations made earlier this week by big companies, including earth moving equipment manufacturer Caterpillar, pharma major Pfizer, telecom firm Sprint Nextel Corp and retailer Home Depot.
The four companies together account for for 61,000 lay off announcements.
Further, Dutch banking and insurance group ING has said it would slash 7,000 jobs, while another Dutch company Philips announced 6,000 job losses.
Britain's largest steelmaker Corus had said it would cut 3,500 jobs from its global workforce, with more than 2,500 of them in the UK.