(File photo)

Longmay, the largest coal mining group in Northeast China will make the move on its biggest layoff in recent years by cutting 100,000 jobs within the next three months to reduce its losses, as was reported by China Daily on September 26, 2015.

Chairman of the group Wang Zhikui said the redundancies were aimed at paying off debts and "stop bleeding".

The last time Longmay cut staff was last year, when China's coal industry was faced with almost three years of overcapacity and price falling. Yet the cuts failed to curb further losses.

Deng Shun, an analyst at Shanghai-based energy consultancy ICIS C1 Energy, says the losses were mainly caused by high human resource costs incurred by its 214,000 staff members and 180,000 pensioners who needed to be taken care of.

The analyst notes that many traditional State-owned coal enterprises are facing the same kind of problem.

The coal mining group is planning to set up a special center to help those losing their jobs to either relocate or start their own businesses.

It also plans to sell its non-coal related businesses to help pay off its debts.