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Screwed: 2,000 at BASF

A daily review of the employment fallout around the country and the world.
Germany chemical company BASF plans to layoff at least 2,000 employees… The University of Washington is laying off up to 800 staff positions to take effect before the next fiscal year begins in July… Sovereign Bank plans to eliminate 950 jobs… Abercrombie & Fitch will cut 170 jobs in its Columbus, Ohio headquarters… Intermec Inc. will layoff 12 percent of its workforce worldwide.
Read more about layoffs at the sites compiled on our layoff tracker page.

More layoffs in the finance industry have been announced Friday. The latest round of cuts include Sovereign Bank (NYSE:SOV), Lloyds Banking Group plc (NYSE:LYG) and Commerzbank AG (NYSE:CBK).

• Sovereign Bank will immediately cut its workforce by 950
  positions, according to WFMZ-TV.

• Lloyds Banking Group is trimming 305 jobs as it merges Clerical Medical sales forces with Scottish Widows life insurance businesses. Also, last week Lloyds said 985 full- and part-time posts from its motor finance business would be axed over the next two years, according to the Financial Times.

• Commerzbank’s real estate financing unit Eurohypo will axe around 300 jobs in
  Germany and overseas, according to Reuters.

• Cigna (NYSE:CI) may make more reductions than the 1,100 jobs the company said it would cut in January. The size of the new cuts won’t be disclosed until second-quarter earnings, according to the Hartford Courant.

• First National Credit Card Center, a subsidiary of First National Bank of Omaha, is closing two offices in Atlanta that employ 215 people, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

For a roundup of all the announced layoffs to date, check out The Deal’s Pink Slips on Wall Street. Also feel free to send me any layoff tips or rumors you are hearing. – Maria Woehr

Tags: banks, business, education, layoffs, The Working World