Doing the math on impending Pfizer layoffs

Are you wonder just how many jobs Pfizer has yet to eliminate, now that its merger with Wyeth has closed? It's not as easy a number to pin down as one might think. Back when Pfizer announced the deal, it promised to shed 15 percent of its workforce. That translated into 19,500 jobs facing the axe.

But Pfizer then said that the 15 percent would include 8,000 jobs it was already working to eliminate, leaving 11,500 for after the merger, or so it would seem. As the Wall Street Journal Health Blog calculates, however, Pfizer hasn't yet finished cutting those 8,000 jobs. Rather, it's managed to hive off only about 6,500. Leaving 1,500 to go, or 13,000 total.

As of this morning, that 13,000 includes some 200 folks who work at Wyeth's Fort Dodge Animal Health facility in Overland Park, Kansas. The facility is slated to close, in "a matter of months, not weeks," the Kansas City Star reports. That leaves 12,800.

Why does it matter? If you worked at Pfizer these days, you wouldn't need to ask that question. The 12,800-job goal is a measure of the peril the Pfizer-ites face.

- check out the Health Blog post
- see the closure story in the Kansas City Star

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