Zurich — General Electric (GE) is axing 12,000 jobs at its global power business, the struggling industrial conglomerate’s latest effort to shrink itself into a more focused company. The US company launched the cuts to save $1bn in 2018, saying it expected dwindling demand for fossil fuel power plants to continue. "Traditional power markets including gas and coal have softened," GE said. Rumours of sweeping job cuts were confirmed by labour union sources on Wednesday, with staff in Switzerland and Germany among those badly hit. "This decision was painful but necessary for GE Power to respond to the disruption in the power market, which is driving significantly lower volumes in products and services," said Russell Stokes, head of GE Power. "Power will remain a work in progress in 2018. We expect market challenges to continue, but this plan will position us for 2019 and beyond." Last month, new GE CEO John Flannery outlined plans to shrink GE’s sprawling empire of businesses built up ...
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