3M Co., Minnesota's largest manufacturing company, is cutting its worldwide workforce by another 1,200 jobs, or 1.5 percent, in response to the global recession.
Fewer than half of the job cuts will be in the United States.
But "several hundred" jobs are being eliminated in Minnesota, with most of the job losses coming at the company's Maplewood campus, Jacqueline Berry, a 3M spokeswoman, said Tuesday. Some of the affected Minnesota employees were notified Monday.
In the industrial and transportation business segment, about 300 jobs are being ended, Berry said.
While some reductions were announced this week and last week, Berry said the 1,200 figure includes cuts that occurred earlier in the first quarter.
"All of the businesses are making business adjustments based on the current economic conditions," she said.
In January, 3M executives reported that they had reduced more than 2,400 positions worldwide during the fourth quarter in response to the economic slowdown. 3M's sales rose 3.3 percent to $25.3 billion for all of 2008, but dropped by 11.2 percent in the fourth quarter.
Patrick Campbell, 3M's chief financial officer, told Wall Street analysts in February that the company expected to make more job cuts in 2009. The first quarter ended Tuesday, and 3M previously estimated that first-quarter sales would slide by 15 to 18 percent. For all of 2009, 3M projected that its sales would be down 5 to 9 percent.
