Late yesterday, Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) announced that it will eliminate roughly 900 jobs -- mainly from the company's Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals unit.

The move includes a mix of attrition along with hiring freezes, all of which are part of JNJ's plans to cut its U.S. sales force and try to refocus its market approach. These job cuts total roughly 6% of JNJ's entire pharmaceutical sales force.

Back in January, the Dow conglomerate predicted weaker 2009 results -- thanks to the current recession, unfavorable currency exchange rates, and increased competition from generic drug makers.

Citigroup (NYSE: C) may fire as many as 18,000 more people this year. In the second quarter, it is faced with write-offs as high as $8 billion. According to The Times, "Although Citi has raised more than $50 billion in new capital to repair its balance sheet, analysts believe it will need even more new cash to see it through the financial crisis."

Based on Citi's current market cap of $90 billion and its stock price, just above $16, raising another $10 billion could push the stock as low as $10.

One of the ironies of this is that the man who created the financial services companies through a series of mergers, Sandy Weill, still sits on the Forbes 400 list with a $1.3 billion net worth. Too bad he can't send each shareholder a small check.

Weill is an example of why some part of a CEO's pay should not be held in escrow until a decade after he retires. At least then, they might give some thought to what their actions could cause a few years down the road.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) may cut additional 9,000 U.S. factory jobs via its latest buyout offer, sources told Bloomberg News Monday.

The cuts, on top of 33,600 union workers who left through buyouts / early retirement in 2006 and 2007, would speed Ford's return to profitability as it would replace them with new workers who would be paid half as much.

Ford's shares gained 5 cents to $6.13 in Monday morning trading on the news.

Necessary cuts

Independent stock analyst C. Leonard Bauer, formerly of Prudential, told BloggingStocks Monday the cuts are part of painful, but necessary changes Ford must make to survive.

"Ford has done a good job in the initial stages of it restructuring, closing useless plants, increasing efficiencies at existing assembly lines, and lowering legacy costs. But the really big savings will come from getting a lower-wage workforce in place," Bauer said. "Because of global competition, auto makers must reduce labor costs by about 30-50%, just to survive. This is another step in that process." Bauer added that he does not have a rating on the company, nor own Ford's shares.

Further, Bauer said he expects the cuts to speed Ford's return to profitability, arguing that if the U.S. recession is mild, or lasting two quarters or less, Ford will earn a profit in 2009. Bauer expects Ford to lose about 15 cents in 2008 and earn about 60 cents in 2009.

Dell Inc. (NASD: DELL) had a better quarter than expected. But, the highlight of its earnings release was the announcement that it would let go 8,800 people, about 10% of its staff. After job cuts by Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) and International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM), it is beginning to look like a mature tech trend.

Dell benefited from raising prices on its PCs and getting components for less money. Reading between the lines, that may be bad for Intel Corp. (NASD:INTC) and Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NYSE: AMD) both of which supply Dell with x86 chips for servers and PCs.

For its first fiscal quarter of 2008, Dell had revenue of $14.6 billion, operating income of $947 million and earnings per share of $0.34. Revenue was up 3% and net was off a fraction. Results are still preliminary because the company is in the midst of an accounting probe involving the Justice Department.

Dell has a 14% year-on-year improvement in average selling prices. So, the company's focus on selling machines with more features at a better price worked fairly well.

Dell maintained its lead in the US server market and server revenue led the company's revenue improvement with growth of 19 percent year on year to $1.6 billion. Revenue from laptops rose slightly to $4 billion and desktop revenue dropped slightly to $4.9 billion.

Dell's near-term future seems to be based on two things. The first is whether it can cut 10% of its people without hurting service. If so, the savings are considerable going forward. The other project that needs to work for Dell is putting its computers into retail outlets like Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT). With only 3% revenue growth, it needs another sales channel to restart top-line growth.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.