APPLE ANNOUNCES JOB LOSSES AT IRISH PLANT.

Apple Computer Corp plans to cut 450 jobs at a plant in Cork in southwest Ireland as the US firm moves production of its top-selling iMac computers across the Irish Sea to Wales. The Cork plant would continue to build Apple's high-end Power Macintosh G3 desktop range, but further jobs could be lost if Apple stops making powerbooks at the plant. The plant will eventually employ between 600 and 800 people compared with around 1,400 prior to the most recent cut. The sleek-shelled and highly successful iMac model will now be produced at an electronics complex planned by South Korea's LG Electronics for Newport in Wales. Some 390 temporary workers and 60 full-time administrative and management staff at the Cork plant will lose their jobs when the iMac production line shuts down in the next few weeks.

On January 21 it was reported that Apple Computer's popular iMac personal computer was the number one selling PC through retail and mail order channels during the 1998 US holiday season, according to research company PC Data. In...