NEW YORK — Nissan said Monday it does not expect more job cuts in the U.S. following its announcement of 20,000 cuts worldwide.
“We don’t anticipate that you’ll see further extensive job actions as part of that 20,000, because we’ve already made those job actions in the U.S.,” said Alan Buddendeck, vice president of corporate communications for Nissan North America.
On Monday, Nissan in Tokyo said it expected a $2.9 billion loss for the fiscal year ending in March and that it planned to cut 20,000 jobs worldwide, or 8.5 percent of its 235,000-strong global workforce, by March 2010.
About 12,000 of the job cuts will be in Japan, and the rest will be overseas, the company said.
Buddendeck said recent job cuts at Nissan’s U.S. operations have already been factored into the global target and that no other major announcements are planned.
Last July, Nissan said it would offer buyouts to about 6,000 employees at its plants in Smyrna and Decherd, Tenn., with the aim of cutting 1,200 jobs. The Smyrna plant manufactures pickups, sport utility vehicles and the Altima sedan, while the Decherd facility makes engines for all the Nissan and Infiniti vehicles produced in the U.S. At the time, Nissan attributed the cuts to surging fuel prices and plummeting demand for trucks and SUVs.
Since then, vehicle demand in the U.S. has collapsed across the board, with pickup sales continuing to fall because of the slowdown in housing construction.
Last week, Nissan said its U.S. sales in January fell 30 percent. Industrywide, sales fell 37 percent.
Nissan spokesman Fred Standish said the company employs between 13,000 and 14,000 people in the U.S.
