NEW YORK: Car-rental giant Hertz is laying off 10,000 employees in North America in the wake of the coronavirus‘s massive hit to tourism, the company said Tuesday.
Hertz said the downsizing, equivalent to 26.3 percent of its global workforce, was necessary following increased cancelations and declining forward bookings as travel and tourism slows to a crawl.
The company disclosed the job cuts in a securities filing, saying the cuts were effective April 14 for non-union staff and April 21 for unionized workers.
Hertz expects to spend $30 million connected to the action, mostly on severance payments.
More than 2,525,240 infections have now been reported and at least 174,001 people have died, according to an AFP tally at 1900 GMT Tuesday based on official sources.
The United States has the most deaths of any country with 43,200.
Italy is the second hardest-hit country, with 24,648 dead. Spain follows with 21,282, then France with 20,796 and Britain with 17,337.