German industrial giant Siemens announces plans to axe 10% of its workforce by April 2011.

Industrial giant Siemens has announced plans to axe 4,200 jobs worldwide in order to simplify its business structure and make its IT business “fit for the future”.

The company, which has a number of UK-based operations, said that 2,000 of the job losses would affect its German staff in Minch and Paderborn, as well as the Nuremberg/Erlangen areas.

Siemens Chief Human Resources Officer Siegfried Russwurm said the measures would of course be implemented responsibly.

The German company said that the job cuts were a necessary side effect of its need to “provide the labour-intensive business with considerably more flexible and market-oriented structures.”

“The demands on IT and software expertise in our strategic businesses are steadily increasing, and the attractive growth fields of smart grids, product lifecycle management (PLM) and efficient healthcare solutions are all strongly IT-driven,” explained Mr Russwurm.

“The ability to operate customer IT infrastructure as well is also an excellent add-on and generates substantial customer value. In the past, we’ve frequently demonstrated that we vigorously tackle all necessary measures. Only this approach ensures competitiveness and, thus, safeguards jobs in the long term.”

Siemens anticipates that the job losses – which affect more than 10% of its total staff – will be confirmed by April 2011 and hopes that most will go through mutual consent or the non-renewal of temporary contracts. It will begin consultations with staff immediately.