ELECTRONICS manufacturers are reducing workweeks and forcing workers to take leave as the global economy turns poor, Arthur Young, chairman of the Semiconductor and Electronics Industries of the Philippines Inc., said yesterday.

With the global financial crisis now taking its toll even on the manufacturing and tourism sectors, the Philippines would likely miss its target of one million outsourcing jobs by next year as the global recession damped demand for services, an industry spokesman warned.

?Layoffs are the last thing we want to do, but in this kind of downturn there will be layoffs,? Young, also chairman of PSi Technologies Inc., said in a telephone interview.

?A lot of us are doing different things? to cut costs while keeping staff. ?The market will come back one day and we will need those workers.?

?While revenue growth continues to stay on track, the one million employment goal is looking unrealistic,? Oscar Sanez, chief executive of the Business Processing Association of the Philippines, said.

?There is slowdown in some areas. There are projects being canceled or deferred.?

Still, the association was hopeful its revenue target of $12 billion by next year may be met because of a shift to higher-value, higher-paying services, he said.

The lower industry estimate comes amid reports of layoffs that may reach 60,000 in the electronics industry alone, and the loss of 200,000 jobs in six months.

One of the largest Japanese firms operating in Bataan and Cebu had laid off about 4,400 workers and asked the rest of its employees to retire early as it scaled down production amid plunging global sales of personal computers, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines said yesterday.

Group president Ernesto Herrera said Mitsumi Philippines Inc. had told staff this week to take early retirement a day after it laid off 2,400 employees in Bataan and 2,000 workers in Cebu.

Mitsumi is the country?s 10th largest contract manufacturer and exporter of computers, peripheral equipment and accessories.

Intel Corp. last week said it was closing its 34-year-old operation in Cavite, laying off 1,800 workers while Texas Instruments Inc. last month said it was cutting 400 employees.

The decline in global demand for electronics cut the country?s imports 31.5 percent to $3.4 billion in November from the same period a year ago (Full story on B1).

Faced with bleak employment figures at home, the Labor Department nonetheless said hundreds of thousands of jobs were still available to workers despite the global financial slump.

Labor Secretary Marianito Roque said those jobs may be found in countries that had not been seriously hurt by the global financial crisis, including those in the Middle East, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

But statistics from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration showed that while it approved more than 650,000 job orders, only about 261,000 materialized.

Outsourcing, the one bright spot, has not been spared.

Trade Undersecretary Elmer Hernandez said banks such as Citigroup Inc. and HSBC Holdings Plc., among the biggest employers of call-center and other back-office staff, may be capping new hires as the recession cut their revenue.

?Even 700,000 is a significant increase,? Hernandez said in a telephone interview.

?One million was projected during normal times. No one has a handle at this point.?

Employment in outsourcing rose as much as 70 percent to 430,000 last year, Hernandez said.

?Banks are one of the most significant clients of the outsourcing industry,? he said.

Demand from them may be curtailed ?until they?re able to put their house in order.? Bloomberg, Arlie Calalo, Michael Caber