Buffett's Berkshire ends 2009 with 21,000 fewer employees on payroll

NEW YORK: Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc reported 21,000 fewer employees than it had at the end of 2008 amid a slump at the firm's manufacturing and retail units.

Berkshire and its subsidiaries have about 225,000 workers, the Omaha, Nebraska-based company said in regulatory filings. That's 8.6 percent lower than the 246,083 disclosed in the 2008 annual report. Berkshire provided the jobs information in a document tied to its planned $26 billion takeover of railroad Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. Buffett didn't reply to a request, left with an assistant, for comment on the cuts.

Buffett, Berkshire's chief executive officer, oversees a collection of more than 70 subsidiaries that sell products including Geico car insurance, Fruit of the Loom T-shirts and Dairy Queen ice cream. Profit at the firm's manufacturing, service and retail businesses plunged by more than half in the first nine months of the year, and Buffett replaced the CEOs of two operating units whose sales suffered in the recession.