Finland's Tieto to cut a further 5 pct of workforce

HELSINKI, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Finnish IT services provider Tieto plans to cut up to 770 jobs, about 5 percent of its workforce, as it contends with a drop in technology spending in the telecoms sector.

Tieto, which competes with bigger technology services companies such as IBM and Accenture, said the job losses and earlier cost-cutting measures will save the company more than 50 million euros ($68 million) a year.

The latest cuts follow 1,600 job losses in a restructuring announced in March 2012 and completed this year.

Europe's prolonged economic downturn and heated cost competition in the telecoms sector has discouraged companies from committing to investment in large IT projects.

Tieto said the latest cuts will be completed by the end of the first quarter of 2014 and will result in about 45 million euros in restructuring costs this year. It previously forecast such costs at about half of the 57 million euros it booked in 2012.

Tieto finished the second quarter with 15,447 employees.