In what would appear to be a reaction to the economic crisis’ affect in the US, WPP’s Ogilvy & Mather is preparing to cut nearly 10% of its North American staff.

An AdAge.com report has revealed the reductions, which are anticipated to decrease the agency’s employee population by 150 to 175 employees, are expected to take place in New York and other Ogilvy offices nationwide.

Industry executives have attributed the cuts to continued pullback in client spending for 2009.

One year ago Ogilvy initiated large-scale layoffs as the agency saw declining compensation from traditional ad spending as clients increasingly shifted their marketing budgets into digital channels.

This comes after Ogilvy appointed a new global CEO, Miles Young and the recording $812 million in revenue worldwide during 2007.

Ogilvy spokespeople have declined to comment at this stage. Holding-company chief Martin Sorrell himself has said job cuts were forthcoming, particularly in developed markets such as the US, the UK and Spain.

There has yet to be any word on how this will effect the firm’s operations in the Southern Hemisphere.