San Francisco, Apr 26 (IANS): Top apparel retailer Gap and manufacturing giant 3M have announced layoffs that will hit thousands of employees.

Gap will cut hundreds of positions as part of company restructuring, reports Wall Street Journal.

The company earlier eliminated nearly 500 corporate positions in September last year to save $250 million annually.

The current round of job cuts at Gap is expected to be larger than the earlier job cut round. Gap first notified the impacted employees in its international sourcing division first.

Meanwhile, manufacturing giant 3M announced it was slashing 6,000 jobs in an effort to cut annual costs by as much as $900 million.

The company earlier cut 2,500 positions in January.

The company has now announced 8,500 total job cuts this year, which would impact about 10 per cent of its global workforce.

3M CEO Mike Roman said in a statement that these actions would further simplify operations and improve profitability.

Entertainment giant Disney also kicked off its second round of layoffs this week that will affect 4,000 employees.

Disney plans to reduce its workforce by 7,000 jobs as part of a larger reorganisation that will see the company cut $5.5 billion in costs.

The second round of cuts will affect Disney Entertainment and ESPN, as well as Disney Parks, Experiences and Products.