Chief Executive of BT, Ian Livingston, has announced 10,000 job cuts. Photo credit: BT.

Telecoms operator BT is the latest in a string of companies to announce job cuts, planning to reduce its workforce by 10,000 by the end of the financial year.

The company said it has already cut 4,000 jobs, leaving a further 6,000 to go before April 2009 – all part of an ongoing efficiency programme which will mainly affect BT’s indirect labour force including agency workers, contractors, subcontractors and offshore staff.

With a total global workforce of 160,000, BT said it will achieve the reduction in its direct staff largely through natural turnover, pointing out that reductions in previous years have been through voluntary schemes.

In the three months to the end of September, BT made revenues of £5.3 billion, up 4%, but pretax profits slumped 11% to £590 million. For the six months to the end of September, revenues were up 3% at just under £10.5bn with profits down 9% at £1.2bn.

Ian Livingston, Chief Executive, commented on the second quarter’s results: “Three out of our four business units, BT Retail, BT Wholesale and Openreach are delivering on or ahead of target. But profits in BT Global Services are simply not good enough and we are taking decisive action to put matters right. We have appointed Hanif Lalani as the new CEO of BT Global Services and he will continue to grow the business while reducing the cost base.

“Demand for our BT Global Services proposition remains strong, revenue grew strongly in the quarter and the pipeline is healthy. What we have to do now is translate revenue growth into better profitability.”

The news caused BT’s shares to go up 12% in early trading, 13.5p higher at 126p.

Many companies are letting staff go as they try to save cash – substantial reductions have been announced this week by pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline, cable television provider Virgin Media, housebuilder Taylor Wimpey and telephone directories group Yell.

Official data showed on Wednesday that Britain’s unemployment rate jumped to an 11-year high point of 5.8% in the three months to September.