Nissan is slashing 9,000 jobs after a dire financial performance

• Nissan is cutting 9,000 jobs globally to reduce costs, the company said Thursday.
• Sales fell to 1.6 million units due to higher costs, especially in the US.

Nissan is cutting 9,000 jobs globally in an effort to cut costs, the Japanese automobile giant said in an earnings statement on Thursday.

Nissan said that sales volumes decreased year-on-year to 1.6 million cars, hurt by higher selling and production costs, particularly from the US. That translated to much lower revenue: Profit for the quarter that ended in September was 32 million yen, or $208 million, falling far short of the $1.4 billion Nissan reported during the same period last year.

Along with the layoffs, Nissan is cutting production capacity by 20%. CEO Makoto Uchida is also forfeiting 50% of his monthly compensation starting this month, among other executives who are taking a voluntarily pay cut.

The company also installed Guillaume Cartier, currently the chair of Nissan's Africa, Middle East, India, Europe and Oceania unit, in a new role: chief performance officer, in which he will oversee sales and profit.

Over the summer, Nissan started a voluntary severance program. At the time, a spokesman told AutoNews that Nissan was not planning on layoffs.

Nissan had 133,580 employees as of March 31. It was not immediately clear how the job cuts would be distributed among the company's global workforce.

The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This is a breaking news story, please check back for updates.