Monster Worldwide Cautious on 2012 (Reuters)

Online recruitment firm Monster Worldwide Inc forecast a weak start to the year and said it will cut jobs, as it does not expect the global job market to improve drastically in the near term. Shares of the company, which will reduce its global workforce by about 7 percent or 400 jobs, fell 15 percent last Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange. The company, which runs the Monster.com recruiting website, expects first-quarter bookings — an indicator of future revenue — to drop 6 to 10 percent, and profit to be breakeven to 4 cents a share. Analysts were estimating 9 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.