China To Cut 1.8 Million Jobs In Coal And Steel Sectors--DJ

China is expected to cut 1.8 million jobs from the country's coal and steel sectors, China's minister for human resources and social security said in a briefing, according to a Dow Jones report. Of the total, about 1.3 million lay offs will come from the coal sector and about 500,000 from the steel sector, in an effort to reduce excess capacity in those industries as commodities prices have declined, the report said. China's government plans to allocate the equivalent of about $15.3 billion over two years for severance packages, the report said.