"I don't look at employees or the plan as a place to cut," he said.

That's a company with sales of £188m at the last count and 1,700 employees.

It has an annual budget estimated at $1 billion and about 7,500 employees.

He estimated the vocal population at 200 to 500 employees.

Or would you be good at recruiting, training and managing employees?

The plant's payroll, at 701 employees in 1999, when sales were $146 million, has been cut to 574.

Once the downsizing is over, the industry may level off at fewer than 1.2 million employees.

By 1951 the total stood at 1063 employees - 143 allied and 920 Japanese personnel.

Its work force, which hovered at about 200 employees through most of the 1980's, tripled in just over five years.

Companies cannot get away with simply throwing fund choices at employees.