• by Mark Walsh , November 11, 2010

Yahoo is planning to lay off 20% of its total staff of 14,100, or about 2,500 employees, according to a TechCrunch report Thursday. Citing two independent sources, the tech blog said managers have been told to decide who stays and who goes. Yahoo last had a significant round of layoffs when it cut 5% of its workforce, or about 700 people, in April 2009. About 10%, or 1,500 were laid off at the end of 2008.

Restructuring and reducing costs has been a focus for CEO Carol Bartz since she took over running the Web portal at the start of 2009. The cutbacks would stand in contrast to the across-the-board 10% raises and $1,000 bonues announced this week at Google to help keep employees from heading to pre-IPO companies like Facebook and Twitter.

Update: Yahoo has issued the following statement in response to the TechCrunch report: "Yahoo is always evaluating expenses to align with the company’s financial goals. However, a 20% reduction in Yahoo’s workforce across the board is misleading and inaccurate."