Nokia to lay off 4,000 workers

Nokia plans to cut around 4,000 jobs at manufacturing sites in Finland, Hungary and Mexico as it looks to boost efficiency in its smartphone operations. The company said the changes are aimed at increasing its global competitiveness and stem from a review of its smartphone manufacturing activities announced last September.

During the course of 2012, device assembly will shift from Salo (Finland), Komarom (Hungary) and Reynosa (Mexico) to Nokia’s factories in Asia, where many of the company’s component suppliers are based. The European and Mexican facilities will shift their focus to smartphone product customisation.

Nokia said there will be a reduction in the work taking place on the sites in Europe and Mexico, which is anticipated to impact around 4,000 employees across the three factories. The personnel reductions will be phased through the end of 2012.

Nokia executive VP for markets Niklas Savander said he believed moving device assembly to Asia would reduce time to market and allow Nokia to work more closely with suppliers to more quickly introduce innovations into the market.