Budapest  - The German engineering firm Bosch announced on Thursday that it is cutting 250 jobs at its largest Hungarian plant due to falling orders.

"Since the end of last year, Bosch's largest Hungarian automotive plant has been faced with ever smaller orders from its partners as a result of the crisis in the automotive industry that began last year," Zsuzsanna Kukaj, spokeswoman for Bosch Hungary, told the local news agency MTI

The job cuts will take effect in February. The number of shifts at the plant will be cut from four to three, Kukaj added.

The Bosch auto parts plant in Hatvan, 60 kilometres east of the capital Budapest, will remain the German firm's largest Hungarian plant, with a staff of 2,800 after the cut backs.

Bosch currently employs around 7,000 in Hungary and has plants in the Hungarian towns of Miskolc, Kecskemet and Eger.

Bosch joins over 100 companies that have cut staff since the effects of the global economic downturn began to hit Hungary in October.

The Japanese carmaker Suzuki announced in November that it was laying off 1,200 at its Hungarian plant in face of falling orders.

Figures released by the Hungarian State Employment Service on Monday revealed that mass layoffs announced in December amounted to 5,500 jobs lost, roughly double the figure for November.

According to a running tally on the Hungarian news website Index, 16,678 jobs have been axed since the financial crisis started to bite in October. The unemployment rate has risen to 7.8 per cent. (dpa)