Sony Corp has also decided to freeze its workers' salaries for the year starting in April to improve profitability.

Reportedly, workers' bonuses will also be lowered to four months' pay from six months, and annual compensation for managers will be dropped 10 to 20 per cent through wage cuts and 35 to 40 per cent bonus reductions.

Due to the global economic downtown and the strength of the yen, Sony is expected to report a group operating loss of 260 billion yen ($2.65 billion) for the year ending March 31.

Agilent Technologies announced a 10 per cent cut in employees salaries across the worldwide starting effecting January 1.

It's the first time Agilent has ordered an across-the-board, companywide pay cut since the depths of the dotcom bust. The company slashed salaries by 10 per cent between November 2001 and August 2002. Agilent also cut thousands of jobs during the tech crash.

The pay cut is expected to last through October 31, 2009, the end of Agilent's current fiscal year, and will save about $110 million, or 1,100 jobs, Weber said. The decision means an average wage cut of about $5,500 for the company's 20,000 employees.

Agilent CEO Bill Sullivan notified employees of the pay cut Monday, Weber said. The Palo Alto-based company expects revenue to be down as much as 5 per cent in 2009 as demand slows for its electronic test and measurement products.

Agilent is the world's largest maker of test equipment for wireless phone makers, but orders have fallen by 10 percent as consumers stop buying the latest electronic gadgets.

Microchip Technology has instituted pay cuts for all its employees worldwide and reduced production levels by 40 per cent in the current quarter from peak levels in the September quarter.

Company CEO Steve Sanghi said, "General economic and semiconductor industry conditions have continued to decline since our October earnings call. As a result of these conditions, we are continuing with a pay cut for all of our worldwide non-manufacturing employees which was implemented during the December quarter." He added, "We are also continuing actions to reduce manufacturing capacity in our wafer fabrication facilities in the US and our assembly and test facility in Thailand."

However, the company declared a regular quarterly dividend of 33.9 cents a share, maintaining its fat yield of 7.4 per cent.

For its fiscal third quarter ended December 31, the company posted sales of $192.2 million, a bit ahead of the Street at $188.9 million, but down 28.8 per cent sequentially and 23.9 per cent year over year.

Santa Clara-based Applied Materials took second 10 per cent pay cut in less than a year "in order to reduce costs due to deteriorating global economic and industry conditions," according to a filing with the SEC.

In December, the non-employee directors also took a 10 per cent reduction in the retainer fee paid for their service on the board, going from $65,000 to $58,500.

Applied's Chief executive Michael Splinter, who was making $980,000 a year at the start of the 2008 fiscal year in November 2007, after getting a four percent raise from his salary the year before, had that reduced to $882,000 for most of the second half of fiscal year 2008 that ended October 31. Following the most recent cut, his salary now stands at $784,000.

The largest supplier of manufacturing equipment to the semiconductor industry, announced its plan to eliminate 1,800 positions, or approximately 12 per cent of its workforce, through attrition, voluntary separation and "other workforce reduction actions."

Information technology provider Securas Consulting Group LLC recently laid off eight employees including Securas' chief information officer, chief technology officer and vice president of sales and cut salaries across company by 10 per cent.

Securas, which brought in around $10 million in revenue in 2008, provides a range of IT solutions, including security, back-up systems, networks, Web solutions and audio-visual services. It focuses on providing IT services to small- and medium-size businesses.