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The global economic crisis continues to cause job loss throughout the world.  Panasonic announced it will cut 560 jobs in Asia, and Best Buy will layoff an undisclosed number of workers at its corporate office.  The announcements come on the tail of massive cuts on Monday by Texas Instruments and other tech giants.

Panasonic’s cuts come from two factories in Asia.  The company will close and electronics parts plant in Malacca, Malaysia, leaving 500 without jobs.  The other 60 will come from cuts at a battery factory in the Philippines.  The company also announced it will merge two plants in Selangor, Malaysia in September.  The merger will cause further job cuts, though Panasonic declined to speculate on the number.  Further cuts may come as Panasonic completes its takeover of Sanyo Electric Co.

Best Buy’s layoffs come on the heels of 500 voluntary layoffs that happened in early January.  Those involuntarily laid off will work for 30 days.  The voluntary layoffs take effect February 12.  The involuntary group will receive a “less generous” severance package according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. 

Best Buy’s layoffs show how bad the economy has affected the consumer electronics market as two of their largest competitors, Circuit City and Tweeter, have already closed.  Best Buy should have seen an increase in sales from those customers coming over, but sales were down in September and October, and December sales, while strong, were down from 2007.

Read [a href=”http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/business/6233922.html”>Panasonic Layoffs]
Read [a href=”http://www.cepro.com/article/report_best_buy_to_lay_off_workers_at_corporate_headquarters/”>Best Buy Layoffs]