NEW YORK, Feb 5, 2009 (AFP) - US cosmetics company Estee Lauder said Thursday it would eliminate 2,000 jobs in a major streamlining after profits plunged in the latest quarter.

Estée Lauder "Fuchsia Now"

The job cuts, representing about six percent of the workforce, would be made over the next two years, part of a new four-year restructuring to battle slumping sales, the New York-based company said in a statement.

Estee Lauder reported net profit fell to 158.0 million dollars in the company's second quarter ended December 31, nearly 30 percent below the 224.4 million dollars posted a year ago.

The maker of beauty products and fragrances whose stable of brands includes the eponymous Estee Lauder, Clinique, Aveda, Tom Ford, Bobbi Brown, Coach and Donna Karan, said sales fell 11.6 percent in the latest quarter to 2.04 billion dollars.

"The factors that impacted our second-quarter results were challenging on multiple levels, and not different from what many other companies have experienced, especially those companies dependent on consumer spending," William Lauder, the company's chief executive said in the statement.

"The current difficult environment, which is global in scale, is not expected to improve in the near term," he said.

The firm said it would take 350 to 450 million dollars in charges for the four-year restructuring.