Education

CEO SURVEY SAYS:   Increase No change Decrease How do you expect your company's sales to change in the next six months? 38% 17% 45% How do you expect your company's U.S. capital spending to change in the next six months? 10% 39% 52% How do you expect your company's U.S. employment to change in the next six months? 9% 32% 60% Source: Business Roundtable

• AT&T (T) announced plans to cut 12,000 jobs, about 4% of its work force.

• DuPont (DD)says it will cut 2,500 jobs, mostly in its businesses that serve the U.S. and European auto and construction markets, plus 4,000 contractors.

Those announcements came as the Labor Department said the number of people claiming unemployment benefits reached a 26-year high 4.09 million, the most since December 1982, although new weekly claims fell a bit.

And a survey by the Business Roundtable showed that 60% of CEOs polled said they plan to cut workers the next six months, up from 32% in the third quarter.

The Roundtable said its CEO economic outlook index, which shows how CEOs believe the economy will perform in the six months ahead, plunged to 16.5 in the fourth quarter, from 78.8 in the prior quarter. It was the lowest since the private group began doing the survey six years ago.

The survey of 101 CEOs, representing companies with a combined workforce of 10 million, was conducted Nov. 3-17.

The CEOs also became gloomier about capital investments and sales. Fifty-two percent said they plan to cut capital expenditures in the next six months, up from 10% in the third quarter, while 45% said they expect their sales to drop, up from 7%.

Earlier this week, reports showed big drops in activity in the manufacturing and services sector. Among Thursday's announcements:

AT&T, the nation's largest telecommunications company, said its job cuts will take place in December and throughout 2009.

It was not immediately clear what departments and cities would see cuts. But, like most telecom companies, AT&T has been seeing customers defect from landline phones to wireless services, and the company noted that it would still be hiring in 2009 in parts of the business that offer cellphone service and broadband Internet access.

The company also said it plans to reduce capital spending next year.

AT&T said it will take a charge of about $600 million in the fourth quarter to pay severance costs.

The company noted that many non-management employees have guaranteed jobs because of union contracts. All affected workers will receive severance "in accordance with management policies or union agreements," the company said.

Chemicals maker DuPont says it will cut the 4,000 contractors by the end of this year, with additional contractor reductions expected in 2009.

DuPont is forecasting a 2008 fourth-quarter loss of 20 cents to 30 cents a share, excluding restructuring charges of about 40 cents per share. The company expects 2009 earnings between $2.25 and $2.75 per share, anticipating the current global recession will continue well into 2009.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters were predicting quarterly profit of 23 cents per share and fiscal 2009 earnings of $2.80, on average.

More companies cutting jobs:

•AbitibiBowater(ABH), the world's largest newsprint maker, will close or idle at least four paper mills and cut 1,100 job in response to falling demand.

About 800 jobs will be permanently cut and approximately 300 jobs will be indefinitely cut, a company spokesman said.

• Electronics components maker Belden(BDC) plans a massive restructuring, announced late Wednesday, that will result in the loss of 1,800 jobs, or 20% of its total workforce.

•Constellation Energy Group(CEG) will cut as much as 8% of its workforce, or 800 positions, mostly in its commodities trading group, because of weak financial markets.

Constellation, which is a major energy trader, power generator and the owner of utility Baltimore Gas & Electric, is the object of a takeover battle between Warren Buffett's MidAmerican Energy Holdings and Electricite de France .

•Credit Suisse Group(CS) is cutting 5,300 jobs — about 11% of its global workforce — in a bid to reduce costs and take its business back into the black.

About two-thirds of the cuts will be made in investment banking, said Chief Executive Brady Dougan.

The bank did not provide a precise breakdown of the cuts, but earlier this week it was announced that 650 jobs would be lost in London, and Swiss union KV Schweiz said it expects the bank to shed about the same number in its home market.

"Geographically, they are pretty well spread around the world," Dougan said in a conference call.

"But, you might imagine, there's probably a higher concentration in the U.S. where there is more of an investment banking footprint."

The latest reductions come on top of 1,800 jobs already lost this year.

• Auto parts maker Hayes Lemmerz International(HAYZ) said it would cut its staff by 19%, or about 1,700 people.

•Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is "streamlining" its educational business, and eliminating jobs in both its education and general divisions. The book company did not immediately say how many jobs would be cut or who had been fired.

• French drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis(SNY) is cutting an unspecified number of U.S. sales jobs as part of a realignment of its marketing.

The company said in an e-mailed statement that it is realigning its sales force. The changes, it said, would affect a single-digit percentage of its 6,500-person U.S. sales force, implying jobs cuts of fewer than 650.

• Office-furniture maker Steelcase(SCS) plans to lay off 300 manufacturing workers.

•United Airlines(UAUA) said late Wednesday it plans to furlough 1,088 workers at bases around the country, according to layoff notices and the unions that represent the workers.

The nation's third-largest airline also plans to close maintenance facilities at the Newark, New York-LaGuardia and Philadelphia airports on Jan. 11.

• Logistics company UTi Worldwide(UTIW) intends to eliminate as many as 275 positions as it outsources some of its information technology functions.

•Viacom (VIA) will cut its workforce by about 7%, or 850 positions, underscoring the advertising slump afflicting most major media companies.

The owner of MTV Networks and Paramount movie studio also plans to suspend salary increases for senior level management in 2009 and will write down the value of certain programming and other assets.

Contributing: USA TODAY's Barbara Hagenbaugh in Washington, Reuters.