Recruiting in China

ALLIANZ SE, which earlier this year said it will cut about 5,700 jobs at its German insurance units, has prolonged a block on compulsory layoffs for employees there by two years following negotiations with its workers' council.

Employees won't face compulsory layoffs "at least" until the end of 2009, Allianz said on its Website. The Munich-based insurer confirmed plans to cut 2,479 jobs by the end of next year and to eliminate a further 2,170 jobs through the end of 2008, it said, adding that it had already cut 1,040 jobs by the end of October, Bloomberg News reported.

"Together with the workers' council, we found a solution to better take our employees' interests into account without lowering our sights on our business targets," Gerhard Rupprecht, head of Allianz's German holding Allianz Deutschland AG, said in the statement.

The job cuts will be reached through "mutual agreements with employees," Allianz said. The company also abandoned plans to shut down its office in Cologne, it said.