WorldCom has laid off some 6,000 workers in the US - seven per cent of the company's global workforce. .

An anonymous source at the company told AP that the losses are across the board and are understood to be part of the company's restructuring announced last year.

An email sent to The Register late last night read: "Layoffs are happening NOW...in Colorado Springs, Texas and probably other sites. No numbers are official (yet)."

In January, WorldCom dismissed as speculation reports that it was to shed between 10 - 15 per cent of jobs from its empire.

However, further job cuts outside the US cannot be ruled out. Worldcom's international operation is in the process of merging with UUNet - a WorldCom company.

According to documents seen by The Register this merger will lead to redundancies in the UK.

No one at WorldCom in the UK was available for comment this morning.

On Tuesday WorldCom lost its single-A credit rating in the US over concerns about grwoing competition in the high-end data communications business. ®

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