Yet, such criticism has to be set against a long-term investment programme - including direct job creation - worth four times the value of the federal payroll cuts.

Abroad, he spoke to investors of public payroll cuts.

Gretzky said he has not planned personnel moves or payroll cuts.

In an interview, Mr. Kemp said few payroll cuts were expected.

Several of the nation's largest companies say many of their payroll cuts are permanent.

In the military industry, payroll cuts are likely to stretch for years.

Those and other payroll cuts have resulted in an annual savings of $339 million, Mr. Campeau said.

About 70 percent of those let go will be in Europe, and roughly a quarter of the payroll cuts will come in the United States.

Sales of mainframes and related products are down an estimated 50 percent, forcing a large share of the company's recent payroll cuts and financial charges.

But Lummis said that with the national debt exceeding $15 trillion, the payroll cut should be taken off the table completely for the time being.