Aircraft engine manufacturing giant Rolls-Royce Group Plc has announced plans to cut around 1,500 to 2,000 jobs worldwide next year.

The decision was made after reviewing the possible impact of current economic uncertainties, delays on individual programs, such as the Airbus A380 and the Boeing 787, and the benefits of the company's continuing focus on efficiency, the manufacturer said in a news release Thursday.

"These reductions account for around four percent of the total workforce and will have an effect globally. As the precise scale and location of the reductions become clear, Rolls-Royce will enter into detailed consultations in the relevant locations," it said.

The company added that as part of its plan, it is consulting employee representatives about a proposed reduction of 140 jobs at its Assembly and Test facility in Derby, Britain, which forms part of the Group's Civil Aerospace business.

Rolls-Royce currently employs around 39,000 people in 50 countries, around 60 percent of whom work in Britain.

Rolls-Royce announced in January that it would continue its focus on efficiency by reducing 2,300 jobs among the staff working in overhead functions in 2008, a program that is now largely complete.

To minimize compulsory redundancies, the group reduced its temporary workforce and relied on voluntary severance, natural attrition, and avoided recruitment. However, it has continued to recruit to support growth in key areas of the business and maintained its commitment to apprentice and graduate recruitment.

Rolls-Royce said it will adopt a similar approach in 2009, so as to mitigate, as far as possible, the impact of the proposed reductions.

"We are determined to maintain our focus on cost reduction and competitiveness as the world economy enters a challenging period. It is too early to determine the precise effects of the global economic downturn and program delays. However, we wanted to give all our employees an early indication of the likely scale of the job reductions we expect in 2009," said John Rose, the chief executive.

Rolls-Royce, a world-leading provider of power systems and services for use on land, at sea and in air, has over the last ten years established a strong position in fast growing global markets including civil aerospace, defense aerospace, marine and energy.

Over the last five years, capital investments made by the group exceeded 1.3 billion pounds (1.95 billion U.S. dollars), with annual underlying sales in 2007 hitting 7.8 billion pounds (11.7 billion dollars).

(Xinhua News Agency November 21, 2008)