The Libyan government plans to lay off 400,000 people, or more than a third of its workforce, to try to ease budget pressures and stimulate the private sector, Prime Minister al-Baghdadi Ali Al-Mahmoudi said.He told the General Peoples Congress, the number of civil servants and state employees had grown excessively to more than one million in recent years, with a wage bill of 4 billion dinars ($3.13 billion) in 2006.Mahmoudi said those who lost their jobs would receive assistance.
