General Electric plans to lay off 12,000 people from its GE Power business unit as part of a broad effort to cut $3.5 billion in costs by the end of 2018.
The company blamed the layoffs, which represent about 4% of its total workforce, on a weak global power market, including the gas and coal industries. The company had about 295,000 employees as of December 2016, according to its corporate website.
GE Power makes products like gas power systems and and steam turbines and sells them to utilities and industries.
“This decision was painful but necessary for GE Power to respond to the disruption in the power market, which is driving significantly lower volumes in products and services,” GE Power CEO Russell Stokes said in a statement. “Power will remain a work in progress in 2018. We expect market challenges to continue, but this plan will position us for 2019 and beyond.”
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In August, John Flannery became GE’s CEO, replacing former CEO Jeff Immelt, Under Flannery, GE has been eliminating many of the company’s perks like its private jets for executives and a car program for managers.
GE shares were flat essentially flat in regular trading on Thursday at $17.71.
