Ad firm WPP 'cutting more jobs'

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Advertising giant WPP is set to cut thousands more jobs as companies are forced to slash their advertising and marketing budgets, a report says.

A total of 7,200 jobs will go this year, with many in Britain, Europe and the US where markets are particularly weak, the Observer newspaper said.

Nobody from WPP was available for comment when contacted by the BBC.

London-based WPP, whose clients include Ford and HSBC, saw income fall 5.8% in the first three months of the year.

"In the balance of 2009, the short-term focus will continue to be on balancing the likely fall in revenues against staff costs and headcount," the company said during the quarterly update.

"The first half of 2009 will clearly be very difficult, with the second half, although continuing to be tough, likely to improve relatively."

However company has been pursuing an aggressive acquisition strategy.

And it said Latin America, Africa and Eastern Continental Europe still showed like-for-like growth.

It is thought that jobs cut at WPP will be either through redundancy or by not replacing those who leave.

The company, which also runs advertising campaigns for Colgate, IBM and Kellogg's and is headed by Sir Martin Sorrell, has said almost a third of the roles it has already cut were due to not replacing workers, rather than severance.