Toyota may cut 3,000 more jobs in Japan: Report

TOKYO: Japanese carmaker Toyota Motor Corp is considering shedding 3,000 more temporary workers at its domestic plants due to worsening sales, a report said on Tuesday.

Toyota may axe its entire remaining temporary workforce in Japan by around mid-2009, the report said.

In November Japan's top automaker had said that it might halve its temporary payrolls to 3,000 by the end of March.

Toyota is considering additional job cuts as new vehicle sales around the world show no sign of recovery, the report said without naming its sources.

Toyota said it had no firm plans for its temporary workforce.

"There has been no decision to reduce the number of temporary workers to zero," a company spokeswoman said.

"As we decide on the number of temporary workers based on production and sales plans, we cannot say for sure what their future numbers will be," she said.

Contract workers helped the auto giant expand production when demand was growing.

Their number peaked at 11,000 in the first half of 2005 and stood at 9,000 at the end of March 2008, according to the Yomiuri. But with Toyota facing its first ever annual operating loss, the carmaker is seeking to slash costs.

The spokeswoman said the company stopped taking on new temporary workers in June 2008. The number at its 12 domestic plants could drop to 3,000 by the end of March if no contracts are renewed, she said.

Contract or temporary employees make up an increasingly large share of the Japanese workforce following the deregulation of the labour market in recent years, and they have been hardest hit by the recent wave of job cuts.