GE Healthcare (NYSE:GE) told reporters today that it planned to lay off about 10% of the workers at its Burlington, Vt., facility, declining to disclose how many jobs that would include.
“While GE Healthcare regrets the loss of any jobs, the business needs to make tough decisions in the current economic climate,” GE Healthcare spokesman Benjamin Fox told the Associated Press.
Fox added that the company would attempt to find "alternate roles" for those who were being let go.
Earlier this month the healthcare giant posted profits of $620 million on sales of $4.31 billion during the 3 months ended Sept. 30, for a bottom-line gain of 2.0% but a top-line dip of 0.6%, compared with the same period last year.
GE Healthcare representatives did not immediately return requests for comment.
As an industry, medical device makers announced more than 2,000 layoffs between between July 13 and September 13 this year alone, several of them citing the medical device tax as a factor in the decision to make cuts.
At the beginning of the month Minnesota medtech giant St. Jude Medical (NYSE:STJ) announced that it will terminate 500 employees, representing 5% of its global workforce, as the company undergoes a massive overhaul. That’s in addition to about 300 layoffs the company announced in August.
In October medical device industry newcomer Sony Corp. (TYO:6758) said it would lay off 20% of its home-base employees, representing about 10,000 jobs, as part of previously announced efforts to curb losses in the Sony’s struggling divisions, which include televisions and consumer electronics, and buttress its emerging businesses, which include medical equipment and imaging technology
