General Motors (GM), the world's largest automobile company, is to cut 30,000 jobs by late 2008 with nine plants to close, the company announced Monday.

GM, already beset by plummeting auto sales, said last week it had quadrupled its second-quarter losses to $1.07 billion and would have to restate its 2001 earnings because of accounting errors.

The company has had four straight quarterly losses, the company's longest stretch without a profit in 13 years. In the third quarter alone, it lost $1.1 billion, compared to a $315 million in the same period last year. Since the beginning of this year, the company has lost $3.8 billion.

The latest woes come as GM struggles to lower the burden of high wages, pension costs and other retiree benefits secured over the years by the powerful United Auto Workers union.