TORONTO - Another round of layoffs hit the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday, as cuts were made all across the business side of the organization.

Interim CEO Paul Beeston, just back in the office after a vacation, said the total number of cuts was less than two dozen although he would not divulge a specific figure.

`The number was significant,' Beeston said from his office. `It's not a pleasant thing to do but we felt it was necessary to ensure the long-term health of the organization.'

The entire baseball operations department was untouched by this latest purge, which comes some 10 months after about 40 people lost their jobs last December.

Those layoffs, which focused on sales and customer service staff, were related to the sudden shift of the global economy and concerns of a looming recession. The moves made Wednesday come as a result of the team's dramatic drop in attendance from 2008.

The Blue Jays attracted a total of 1,876,129 fans over their 81 home games, well off last year's count of 2,400,416.