Cost-cutting Nokia to axe 600 jobs

Mobile phone giant Nokia has announced plans to cut costs by axing over 600 jobs.

A press release from the company said the cost cutting measures are part of a strategy to ’strengthen the customer interface’ and to ensure that resources are allocated ‘to meet the business need’.

The changes will take effect on 1st January 2009.

Around 450 jobs will be cut from Nokia’s marketing unit, 130 from the Nokia Research Centre (NRC) and 35 from global process operations.

Over 200 of the job cuts will be in Nokia’s home territory of Finland, and the company will be closing its Turku office in the country.

Employees at the Turku office not facing redundancy will be moved to Nokia’s Salo site.

Juha Äkräs, Nokia’s senior vice president for human resources, said Nokia plans to find alternative work within the company for as many employees as possible.