Staff at one of Sussex's big employers are today waiting to hear whether they will be hit by job cuts.

American Express has announced it plans to cut 5,000 jobs worldwide following a downturn in the US economy.

The charge card company said no decisions had been made on where the axe would fall.

The company employs more than 89,000 people world-wide, mainly in the USA.

It is the largest private sector employer in Brighton with more than 4,000 employees at its European customer services centre in Edward Street.

A further 2,000 people work at centres in Burgess Hill and Haywards Heath.

The firm says its second-quarter profits will fall from the £528 million it earned 12 months earlier.

Chairman Kenneth Chenault said: "The actions are being taken to ensure that we're in a strong position to navigate what we expect to be a longer period of economic weakness."

A spokeswoman for the company said it was too early to say in what countries or divisions the redundancies would occur.