PetroChina, the country’s largest oil and gas producer, announced that it laid off about 16,600 employees in 2001 to cut costs. This followed a workforce reduction of 38,400 in the previous year. At the end of 2000, the company had 441,000 employees.
Sinopec, China’s largest oil refinery company, intends to cut 20,000 jobs this year, about 5 per cent of its workforce. The reduction will follow the shedding of 50,000 jobs in 2001 and is part of the company’s fiveyear plan to cut 100,000 workers, or a fifth of the total workforce by 2005.
