Telecoms giant BT has announced it is cutting 10,000 jobs.

The company said it had already cut 4,000 jobs, leaving a further 6,000 to go between now and March.

The cuts will mainly affect BT's indirect labour force including agency workers, contractors and offshore staff.

BT, which has a global workforce of 160,000, said it was reducing its dependence on consultants and contractors, cutting those jobs by 12 per cent whereas direct staff numbers will come down by 4 per cent.

BT said it will achieve the reduction in its direct staff largely through natural turnover, adding that reductions in previous years have been through voluntary schemes.

Around 90,000 direct jobs are based in the UK whereas contractors and agency workers are spread between this country and other parts of the world.

Ian Livingston, BT's chief executive, commenting on the company's second quarter results, said: "Three out of our four business units, BT Retail, BT Wholesale and Openreach are delivering on or ahead of target.

"But profits in BT Global Services are simply not good enough and we are taking decisive action to put matters right.

"We have appointed Hanif Lalani as the new chief executive of BT Global Services and he will continue to grow the business while reducing the cost base."

The job losses add to a week of gloom on the employment front, with thousands of redundancies announced in recent days and official unemployment edging closer to the politically sensitive two million mark.

The jobs announcement came as BT announced an 11 per cent fall in second quarter pre-tax profits to £590 million. Revenues were 4 per cent higher at £5.3 billion.

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