Employees of Alcatel-Lucent take part in a general assembly in front of their company in Velizy-Villacoublay, Paris, yesterday. Alcatel-Lucent has informed unions that it plans to cut a total of 5,490 jobs worldwide as part of a cost-cutting drive in response to sliding profits. The job losses, from a total workforce of 78,000, are designed to help Alcatel trim $1.6bn from its annual costs by the end of 2013.