Jan. 30 (Bloomberg) -- NEC Corp., Japan’s largest personal- computer maker, will eliminate more than 20,000 employees in the largest job cut in Japan since the world went into recession.

About half the cuts, targeted for completion by March 2010, will come from full-time workers, NEC President Kaoru Yano said at a briefing in Tokyo. That indicates the company may slash 6.7 percent of its full-time workforce, which totaled 150,236 at the end of 2008.

Recessions in Europe, Japan and the U.S. forced NEC earlier today to change its full-year forecast to a loss as chip demand fell and it took a charge for a drop in shareholding values. NEC joins electronics companies including Sony Corp. and Hitachi Ltd. in reducing workers as the worsening recession will lead sales of televisions, cameras and handsets to decline in 2009.

Yano said most of the cuts will come from Tokyo-based NEC’s chip, electronic-component and liquid-crystal-display divisions. About 60 percent of the job eliminations will take place in overseas units, he said.

The net loss will total 290 billion yen ($3.2 billion) in the 12 months ending March 31, compared with profit of 15 billion yen forecast in October, NEC said. Sales will fall 9 percent to 4.2 trillion yen, missing its projection of 4.6 trillion yen.

NEC Electronics Corp., Japan’s third-biggest chipmaker, yesterday forecast its full-year net loss will reach 65 billion yen, exceeding the company’s October projection for a deficit of 8 billion yen.

NEC Tokin Corp., a unit making magnetic parts for electronics, said this week it will cut 9,450 jobs, while NEC Electronics said it plans to terminate 1,200 temporary employees. The cuts are included in the total announced today, NEC said.

Slumping Demand

Global chip sales will fall 16 percent in 2009, more than the 4.4 percent drop last year, Gartner Inc. said in December. Sales of flat-panel televisions will fall in 2009 for the first time this decade, according to Daiwa Institute of Research Ltd.

Hitachi today forecast a record 700 billion yen loss and may eliminate as many as 7,000 workers to cope with Japan’s worst postwar recession. Sony said in December it will cut 16,000 jobs.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mikako Nakajima in Tokyo at mikako@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: January 30, 2009 05:12 EST