Town faces grim future as Nokia transfers jobs to Asia

Associated Press

SALO, Finland

Tomi Marjuaho repaired mobile phones for 10 years in the town of Salo in southern Finland, where Nokia, the world’s top cellphone-maker, set up its wireless operations in the 1980s.

He took a severance package in 2010, as Nokia started hitting hard times, and has not found work since.

Salo — along with other Finnish towns inextricably linked to Nokia — is facing an uncertain future as Finland’s most famous corporation shifts its mobile-phone assembly to Asia.

Squeezed by fierce competition from Apple Inc.’s iPhone, Samsung Electronics and cheaper brands running Google Inc.’s popular Android software, Nokia has been forced to slash costs, primarily affecting its operations in Europe.

Nokia already has closed plants in Germany, Hungary and Romania; and now it’s the turn of the Finnish assembly plant. Some 1,000 of the 3,500 jobs in Salo — which until recently was Nokia’s flagship assembly hub — are being cut this year.

Nokia still employs 12,000 people in Finland, one-fifth of its global work force, and the company will maintain research and development, production planning and smartphone customization for corporate clients in Salo and two other plants in Finland, Nokia spokesman James Etheridge said.