Jobless Claims Hit 16-Year High; Where The Cuts Are

The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits rose by 27,000 last week to their highest level in 16 years, according to the Labor Department.

Much of the job losses are comng from the fnancial sector, the high tech sector and, of course, Detroit's Big Three auto firms.

Here is A list of recently announced job cuts, as compiled by CNBC:

Boeing announced plans on November 19 to cut approximately 800 positions at a Wichita, Kansas plant, due to delays in the U.S. Air Force tanker-replacement project and the end of other programs. The layoffs, which will hit managers and both salaried and hourly workers, will take place mostly in the first half of 2009.

Citigroup is cutting as many as 53,000 jobs in its investment bank and other divisions throughout the world.

JPMorgan Chase hs annouced that it plans to cut least 10 percent and maybe 15 percent of its workforce.

Sun Microsystems said Friday it plans to cut up to 6,000 jobs, or 18 percent of its global work force, as sales of high-end servers have collapsed.

BT Group, the UK telecommunications firm, will cut 10,000 jobs, or 6.3% of its global work force, in the first quarter of 2009.

Applied Materials, the semiconductor-and-solar panel equipment maker, is slashing 1,800 jobs, the company annonnced after reporting four-quarter profits fell 45% on weak sales due to declining corporate technology spending.

Circuit City, which is filing for bankruptcy, is laying off about 17 percent of its domestic work force, which could affect up to 7,300 people.

Deutsche Post, German mail and logistics company Deutsche Post will cut 9,500 jobs at its DHL unit in the U.S. and eliminate U.S.-only domestic express shipping.

Nortel Networks plans to lay off 1,300 workers, nearly 5 percent of its workforce.

Motorola posted a third-quarter net loss and revenue fell a steeper-than-expected 15 percent, as a result the telecom equipment maker will slash 3,000 jobs in a cost-cutting effort.

Ford said it would cut 2,260 white-collar workers in North America.

General Motors, which previously said it would reduce salaried employment costs by 20 percent, will also cut another 1,900 salaried jobs on top of the 5,100 announced last summeR.

Fidelity Investments will start laying off about 2.9 percent of its global workforce later this month—affecting 1,288 workers in the first round from a workforce of 44,4000—and plans to trim more workers early next year.

Toy maker Mattel Inc. says it is cutting some 1,000 positions worldwide in response to the ongoing economic downturn.

Goldman Sachs notified roughly 3,200 employees this month that they have been laid off, part of previously reported plans to slash 10 percent of the firm's global work force. The move comes after laying off hundreds of support staff and junior bankers in June.

At Merrill Lynch, 10,000 employees could be released as a result of the merger with Bank of America.

Bank of America, the second-largest U.S. bank by assets said in June it expected to eliminate about 7,500 jobs over the next two years after the completion of its acquisition of Countrywide Financial Corp, the largest U.S. mortgage lender.

Barclay's plans to cut about 3,000 jobs as it brings Lehman Brothers into its fold. Lehman, which filed for bankruptcy last month, had 26,000 employees. About 10,000 have been given jobs until at least the end of the year.

Wachovia, said in August it would cut 6,950 jobs, 600 more than it had previously disclosed.

UBS said at the beginning of October it would cut another 2,000 jobs at its troubled investment bank. The job losses come on top of 7,000 jobs already cut, about 4,100 of which were in investment banking positions cut in the past year. The bank will have reduced its headcount by more than 10 percent to under 80,000.

Credit Suisse has cut more than 1,500 jobs, the majority in investment banking in the last year since 2007, and on Tuesday it said it would cut 500 more jobs.

HSBC said late last month it was cutting 1,100 jobs in its investment banking operation, or 4 percent of the workforce.

Commerzbank announced its plan to cut 9,000 jobs in the wake of its agreement to purchase Dresdner Bank from Allianz. About 2,500 jobs of the 9,000 cuts will be outside Germany.

Computer maker Dell, which is nearing the end of nearly 9,000 job cuts, has asked employees to consider taking up to five days of unpaid vacation, is offering voluntary severance packages and has instituted a global hiring freeze.