Earlier this year, back in October 2007, Novartis (www.novartis.com) , the pharmaceutical giant announced said that they had plans to cut their numbers worldwide by 2.5%. They have already cut 1,200 sales and marketing positions in the US, which will save them an estimated $230 million. These cuts are blamed on incerased competition and a lower than expected sales growth.
There is another 1,300 job cuts planned. In Ireland, Novartis has over 600 employees are in Cork and Waterford but today they said that they are not planning on major job cuts. Most of the Irish jobs will be saved, but no concrete numbers have so far been released. It will be fingers crossed this Christmas for the staff of Novartis.