It's not pulling a Sony or anything, but even Sharp has been unable to absorb the downturn in flat-panel demand. We already knew that the firm was looking to scale back production by as much as 10% from the middle of this month, and our deductive reasoning skills are leading us to believe that this is the cutback we've been expecting. The outfit will be closing down two LCD panel production lines in Japan in order to "move production to a newer and more cost-efficient plant as the global downturn hits demand for electronic goods." Along with the closings will come 380 job cuts -- all temporary workers -- which will presumably be sent home when the lines halt for the final time in January.

Wouldn't it figure -- the company synonymous for charging absurd amounts of coinage for products that are debatably no better than the copper-laced counterparts available en masse for much less is cutting 120 jobs, only to replace them with outsourced labor. While we fully understand the "business demands of the 21st century," as Mr. Lee so aptly implied, there's something to be said when you're suckering folks into buying cranking out $100 HDMI cables and $70 iPod controllers, yet can't afford to hook your loyal employees up with anything more than "four weeks severance" and a dash of "counseling." What's notable about all this is that prior to this recent batch of layoffs, excessed employees received "four weeks pay plus one additional week of pay per year of service." Furthermore, many employees say the job searching assistance is "worthless," as they really have no desirable skills besides the one's learned at Monster. 'Tis a shame to see the folks let go, but we're fairly certain the firm's (supposed) cash drought isn't due to a lack in markup.

[Via CEPro]