Berlin - Further signs of the impact on German industry of the world economic slowdown emerged Tuesday when two of the nation's leading companies announced tough measures aimed at facing up to the rapid deterioration in global growth.



While the world's leading luxury carmaker BMW AG announced plans to introduce shorter working hours for 26,000 employees at four plants, giant German retailer Metro AG said it wanted to cut 15,000 jobs from its worldwide workforce over the next three years.



The job cuts formed part of a 750-billion-euro (970 billion dollar) cost-cutting program announced by the company.



Metro's shares surged by 6 per cent to 25.85 euros in the wake of the announcement by the company, which has operations in 32 nations including in Asia, the Middle East as well as Central Europe and a combined global workforce of 300,000.



The Dusseldorf-based retailer announced on Monday it was launching the big restructuring programme called Shape 2012 to boost corporate operating profit by 1.5 billion euros by 2012.



German companies have been announcing layoffs and production cuts as the global slump has tightened its grip on Europe's biggest economy.



Announcing the move to shorter hours, BMW said that about 38,000 less vehicles would be produced in February and March as previously planned.



BMW rival Daimler AG, the manufacturer of Mercedes Benz luxury cars announced last month that it was placing part of its workforce on shorter working hours as global orders shrank. (dpa)