Symantec will lay off an undetermined number of workers before the end of the year as part of a cost-cutting move in the economic downturn, a company spokesperson said on Thursday.

The company, which gave guidance on Wednesday that was short of analyst expectations, plans a 4.5 per cent cost saving in its workforce budget and will reduce the headcount enough to accomplish that, said a company spokesman.

The spokeperson said they did not know how many employees would be laid off, but said the layoffs will be global, will vary across geographies and that no specific business units are being targeted.

We are shooting for a specific [cost savings] figure. So whatever gets us to that figure [will be done], they said. The goal is to maintain some stability in Symantec\'s financials given how unpredictable the economic environment is right now.

Symantec will start alerting employees within the next month, according to the spokesperson.

The move is separate from an ongoing initiative, started over a year ago, to outsource IT operations to EDS, the spokesperson said.

The workforce budget includes costs for salaries, bonuses and benefits for the company\'s 17,500 employees worldwide.