DuPont to cut 1,700 jobs in Delaware

Chemical maker DuPont Co said it will cut 1,700 jobs in Delaware, as part of a plan to reduce its workforce by 10 percent before its proposed merger with Dow Chemical Co. The job cuts will be in the beginning of 2016, DuPont Chief Executive Ed Breen said in a letter to the company's employees on December 29.
The company said on December 11 it planned to slash about 10 percent of its workforce of about 63,000 and take a pretax charge of $780 million. The combined specialty products business of the two companies will be headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware after the merger, Breen said in the letter.