Caterpillar Inc. announced it will cut up to 10,000 jobs between now and 2018, with up to 5,000 jobs by 2016. The company slashed its revenue forecast on Thursday as the effects of the mining and energy downturn hit.

Shares fell by 8%, a five year low. The fall brought the sector down knocking up to 37 points from the Dow Jones industrial average.

Doug Oberhelman, Caterpillar CEO said: "We are facing a convergence of challenging marketplace conditions in key regions and industry sectors - namely in mining and energy." Caterpillar already reduced its workforce by more than 31,000 since 2012.

A fall in the cost of raw materials such as oil and iron and China’s slowing economy contributed to the fall in demand for construction equipment.

Earlier this week, JCB announced 400 job losses.

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JCB has experienced a sharp fall in orders, particularly in emerging markets like China after a rapid deterioration in the construction equipment markets. The company hasn’t ruled out redundancies outside the UK in the future.

The company told staff that they will try to minimise the impact by offering voluntary redundancies. JCB CEO Graeme Macdonald said: "Market conditions in the construction equipment sector have been difficult for some time, but they have worsened quite rapidly in recent weeks. The situation is not about to improve, certainly not in the short term, so we now need to take difficult but decisive actions to align overheads to lower sales forecasts."

GMB, the JCB workers union said: "This huge wave of uncertainty is likely to lead to further job losses in the sectors that trade with the rest of the world. GMB will do everything we can during the consultations to avoid compulsory redundancies and to mitigate the impact on the workforce."

The market has experienced drops in the first six months of 2015, with Russia dropping by 70%, China 47% and France down 26%. Low oil and commodity prices has led to a decline in market confidence, resulting in a slowing of UK and US growth.

JCB, the third largest construction equipment manufacturer, cut 150 jobs in December 2014, in response to a decline in world markets. JCB’s woes are seen as further evidence that the marked slowdown in infrastructure investment in China is having ripple effects around the world.

JCB is one of Britain’s most successful family-owned businesses and was established by Joseph Cyril Bamford in 1945. The company is currently led by his son Anthony Bamford, who led the company’s early export drive into Europe in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

JCB’s first overseas operation was established in India in 1979, where the company employs over 4,000 people. The move was to become a template for the company’s subsequent moves into Brazil, USA and China.

JCB has 22 plants around the world employing over 12,000 people making over 300 different products. A new £63m factory was opened in Brazil in 2012 and construction of a new £62m factory is nearing completion in Jaipur, India - JCB’s fourth factory in the country.

In the UK, JCB employs 6,500 people employees in its 11 factories. JCB makes its own transmission systems in Wales, hydraulic cylinders and cabs in Staffordshire and off-highway engines in Derbyshire.

Joy Global Inc, a mining equipment manufacturer recently announced a profit warning in response to the fall in demand.
Deere & Co, a maker of farm equipment announced more than 900 layoffs in January, as a result of falling grain prices.