As you no doubt know, Google now owns Motorola, and although there’s no word on future product plans it appears that the Google guys have at least one thing on the cards for Motorola, and that is taking the job loss axe to Motorola’s workforce and giving some 20 percent of the firm’s workers the chop.

This impending 20 percent slash in the Motorola workforce comes our way courtesy of AllThingsD who gained the news via the usual unnamed ‘source familiar with company plans’, and that 20 percent equates to roughly 4000 jobs being cut, and apparently two thirds of the job losses will come from outside the United States.

A rep from Motorola has said that they expect the strategy to deliver new opportunities, whilst returning their mobile device unit to profitability, Motorola does understand how hard the changes will be for workers, and they are committed to helping those workers through the difficult transition, whilst offering outplacement services to help find those workers new jobs along with generous severance packages.

Furthermore it is expected that Motorola will shut down roughly a third of their 94 plants, and focus on key hubs in Chicago, Sunnyvale California, and in Beijing, whilst a fortnight ago Motorola did announce they would be moving their Liberyville Ill., facility to Chicago’s down town Merchandising Mart building.

When Google acquired Motorola the CEO Sanjay Jah, along with top execs Juergen Stark, John Bucher, Bill Ogle, Christy Wayatt and others, and Google has made a few leadership changes at Motorola, but hasn’t thus far delivered any details on product strategy other than stating it is expected to focus on fewer products.

According to the New York Times, the new head of Motorola, Dennis Woodside has said that they plan on leaving unprofitable markets along with stop making low end devices, and to focus on new smartphones rather than dozens, and that the company is excited about the smartphone business.