UPDATE 2-Kelly Services posts Q4 loss on charges, shares fall

* Q4 loss/shr $2.55 including charges

* Revenue drops 13 percent

* Reduces contribution to 401(k) plan

* Shares down 10 percent

Jan 22 (Reuters) - Staffing company Kelly Services Inc (KELYA.O) swung to a fourth-quarter loss, hurt by impairment and restructuring charges, apart from a weak staffing market, sending its shares down as much as 10 percent.

In a bid to reign in costs, the company said it has resorted to a salary freeze and has reduced matching contributions to its employee 401(k) retirement programs.

Chief Financial Officer Patricia Little said in a conference call that Kelly Services would also suspend majority of its field-based incentive plans.

The company also expects to consolidate and close a number of branches of its UK operations and sees related charges of $11 million to $14 million in 2009.

For the quarter ended Dec. 28, the company posted net loss of $88.8 million, or $2.55 a share, compared with a profit of $18.6 million, or 52 cents a share, a year earlier.

Revenue fell 13 percent to $1.28 billion.

Results included impairment charges of $2.22 a share and restructuring charges of 4 cents a share for its U.K. operations.

Analysts on average were expecting earnings of 8 cents a share, excluding special items, on revenue of $1.34 billion, according to Reuters Estimates.

"With the loss of 2.6 million jobs in the U.S. alone, it comes as no surprise that demand for temporary staffing has declined dramatically -- here, and throughout the world," Chief Executive Carl Camden said in a statement.

Revenues from its Americas Commercial segment declined almost 15 percent to $591.9 million, hurt by further cutbacks by the company's customers in temporary staffing.

Revenues from its Americas Professional and Technical and EMEA Commercial segments, fell 7.3 percent and 16.9 percent to $212.8 million and $283.2 million, respectively.

Shares of the Troy, Michigan-based company were trading down almost 5 percent at $10.75 in afternoon trade Thursday on Nasdaq. They touched a low of $10.15 earlier in the day. (Reporting by Biswarup Gooptu in Bangalore; Editing by Ratul Ray Chaudhuri)