DuPont layoffs

Update
Employers announce a combined 20,000 jobs cuts

Originally published Thursday, December 4, 2008 at 3:45 PM
By CHRISTOPHER LEONARD
AP Business Writer

A round of more than 15,000 layoffs announced Thursday by AT&T Inc., DuPont and Viacom Inc. suggests a yearlong wave of job cuts is accelerating, just as the government is expected to report a higher unemployment rate for November on Friday.

WRAPUP 2-U.S. layoffs spread, CEOs see more pain ahead

2008-12-04 20:49 (UTC)

By Scott Malone

BOSTON, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Fear of a deepening recession is spreading throughout corner offices across corporate America, prompting chief executives in all sectors to slash thousands of jobs as they scramble to find ways for their companies to survive the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

AT&T Inc and DuPont Co led the list on Thursday of blue-chip U.S. companies laying off workers in the weeks before the Christmas holiday. A number of surveys showed that CEOs were planning more cuts, as a measure of corporate chieftains' confidence fell to a record low.


DuPont Cutting 1,500 Jobs
(AP) - WILMINGTON, Del.-Chemicals maker DuPont Co. on Monday said it will cut 1,500 jobs and consolidate manufacturing in its seeds unit in a move to lower operating costs by $100 million a year....
...DuPont said it now expects to earn $3.25 per share in the quarter, including $370 million, or 39 cents per share, in net one-time gains. The previous estimate was for profit of $2.86 per share, including a gain of 1 cent per share....

DuPont to cut jobs in streamlining
Mon Dec 11, 2006 9:13am ET
HOUSTON (Reuters) - Chemicals group DuPont Co. said on Monday it would close or streamline 10 plants and cut 1,500 jobs - 2.5 percent of its overall workforce - as part of a plan to restructure its nutrition and crop protection business.

DuPont Tries to Unclog a Pipeline
JANUARY 27, 2003
Can it move new products out of the lab faster?

So after skimming the above articles and recently watching this I wonder if it's competition that forced this change, if the focus on the seed business (the big corporations make seeds that only grow food for one season and people all over the world are fighting this because they don't want to be dependent on the corporations for seeds every year) is another failure wating to happen?