Cap Gemini cutting 700 UK jobs

EUROPE'S largest computer services firm, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, is shedding 700 jobs in Britain, around one in ten staff, as part of group cuts because of tough markets.

'A combination of streamlining our structure to better respond to the current market conditions and a harsher operating environment meant that we need to cut 10% of the UK salary costs,' it said.

Cap Gemini last month reported third-quarter sales down 17.5% and said it would speed up cost cuts. Management said at the time that 3,500 redundancies identified in the first half would be mostly completed by the end of the year.

Of 3,000 more jobs that could go from the group, 600 staff had been reassigned to sales and another 1,500 would leave over the next few months. More were likely to follow.