JAPANESE AUTOMAKER NISSAN CUTS 9,000 JOBS AS ITS VEHICLES FAIL TO SELL

Nissan reported Thursday a loss for the latest fiscal quarter as its vehicle sales sank while costs and inventory ballooned, prompting the Japanese automaker to slash 9,000 jobs.

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Chief Executive Makoto Uchida said he was taking a 50% pay cut to take responsibility for the dismal results, while promising that a turnaround was coming.

Nissan Motor Corp. announced a global workforce reduction of 9,000 people, or about 6% of its more than 133,000 employees, as well as a plan to slash global production capacity by 20%.

Uchida declined to say which regions will be affected by the cuts or give specifics.

For the latest quarter through September, Nissan racked up a 9.3 billion yen ($60 million) loss, a reversal from the 190.7 billion yen profit recorded the same quarter a year ago.

Quarterly sales fell to 2.9 trillion yen ($19 billion) from 3.1 trillion yen.