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P&G eyes big job cuts?
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March 21, 2001: 11:52 a.m. ET
Consumer products maker may cut up to 20 percent of work force - report
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NEW YORK (CNN) - Procter & Gamble is considering cutting as many as 22,000 jobs, a published report said Wednesday.
The Cincinnati-based maker of Crest toothpaste, Pampers diapers and other consumer products may cut 10 to 20 percent of its worldwide work force of 110,000 in the face of slower economic growth, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The cuts would help compensate for restructuring efforts that did not lower costs enough at the company, which also makes Tide detergent and Vidal Sassoon shampoo, the report said.
 An internal company task force led by Steve Donovan, a senior executive, is examining P&G's operating costs, looking for structural changes as well as head-count reductions, the Journal said.
In making the cuts, P&G would join such large corporations as Motorola (MOT: Research, Estimates), Intel (INTC: Research, Estimates), DaimlerChrysler (DCX: Research, Estimates) and Lucent (LU: Research, Estimates), all of which have announced big job cuts in recent months.
Linda Ulrey, spokeswoman for Procter & Gamble, declined to comment on the report, but did say the company was proceeding with a reorganization plan it announced in 1999 that calls for reducing the workforce by 15,000 over a four-year period.
"Beyond that, the company is looking at other things to grow the business," Ulrey said. "We have an internal task force looking at new ways or changes we can do to hold overhead cost flat, or beat them in the future. We have an ongoing taskforce looking at other programs to help reduce cost."
Procter & Gamble (PG: Research, Estimates) stock tumbled $2.05 to $63.85 in afternoon trading Wednesday. 
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