It's set to be a long month for Cisco Systems Inc. employees as speculation mounts about the severity of the company's impending job cuts, with Bloomberg reporting early Tuesday that up to 10,000 jobs -- about 14 percent of the company's workforce -- may leave the company as a result of enforced layoffs and voluntary early retirement.

The giant vendor will reveal the extent of its headcount reduction program as part of its Aug. 10 earnings announcement, but until then it's likely that various numbers will hit the news wires.

And the layoff projections are updating quickly -- on Monday the talk was of 5,000 job cuts, while in May the talk was of 4,000 departures. Some Cisco staff who opted for early retirement are believed to have already left the company. (See Cisco May Cut 5,000 Jobs and Cisco's Early Retirements Begin.)

Cisco announced in May, as part of its fiscal third-quarter earnings announcement, that its headcount would be reduced during 2011, noting that staff would be informed of the details by the end of the summer. (See Cisco Preps for Layoffs.)

That announcement followed an internal memo from CEO John Chambers announcing a major upheaval in the company that was designed to combat operational problems, a move that was followed swiftly by the closure of the company's Flip video camera business. (See Cisco Signals Major Restructuring and Cisco Flips on Consumer Business.)

Other recent Cisco developments include:

• Cisco Set-Top Plant Is for Sale
  
• Cisco Fights Back at the Edge
  
• Cisco Partner Tries to Break Moto's Grip on Tier 2s
  
• Cisco Set for Telco Managed Services Push
  
• Cisco Feels Switching Pains
  
• Let's Split Up Cisco
  
• Cisco Cuts Down on Councils
  
• Cisco Contractors Get a Week Off
  
• Was Cisco Wrong to Chase Consumers?

— Ray Le Maistre, International Managing Editor, Light Reading