French railway company SNCF is to cut 1,432 jobs during 2014 (approx. 1pc of the total workforce). Cuts will affect mainly the company’s freight division and ticket sales division.

Furthermore, the group has also announced to recruit 531 employees on publicly sponsored contracts with a focus on young low skilled workers (“contrat d’avenir”). A similar number of recruitments of young workers had been announced in 2012.

The net job losses thus amount to 901 workplaces.

The measure is part of SNCF’s continuing restructuring programme that is to increase its competitiveness and to free up resources for investments in the fast-train TGV network.

As announced, the job cuts will be implemented via natural attrition.

Previous reports announced several rounds of job expansions (2011-1, 2011-2) and job cuts (2010).