Money Matters, Simplified.
800 to face axe at Lockheed Martin
by Jamie Anderson - August 18, 2009 - comments
Lockheed appears to be going through a rough patch. The company is downsizing its operation in Louisiana where it makes rocket fuel tanks for the space shuttle. It has had other job reductions in Owego, New York where it makes the new presidential helicopters
California, August 18: Global Security Company, Lockheed Martin Corp (NYSE: LMT), announced Monday that it intends to cut as many as 800 jobs from its space systems division.
The cut represent close to 4.5 percent of the unit's workforce. The decision has been taken in light of the soft demand in the segment. The said division employs 18,000 people, out of which 7,700 are based out of Sunnyvale. A few hundred are working in Palo Alto and Santa Cruz.
According to the information available on the company’s web site, it employs close to 1, 46,000 people worldwide.
Cuts in all functions
Primarily, two facilities in Colorado and California are likely to be affected by the job eliminations. The cut however would affect employees across functions and across levels. Thus employees in technical, managerial and administrative posts may face the axe.
Lockheed, based in Bethesda, Maryland, will initially offer voluntary layoffs in order to minimize the forced job eliminations.
To further this aim, the company will offer a lucrative severance package to entice employees to opt for early retirements. The buyout offer expires on Aug. 28. No other details of the package were divulged by the company.
The compelling reason
Lockheed Martin foresees flat budgets for space programs at NASA and the Pentagon. A natural corollary of this is that the company will get very few orders from the Department and NASA in the imminent future. Hence the decision to downsize has been taken.
Marco A. Caceres, a senior analyst and director of space studies at the Teal Group said, "NASA and DOD's budgets for space are not going to grow by leaps and bounds. There's a dose of reality that's going to set in because of the economic situation."
Charles Manor, a Lockheed spokesman said, "We looked at the budget forecasts and new program starts looking at three to five years in the future and realized we need to be appropriately sized." He added, "We need to get a bit smaller."
The company also clarified that the layoffs of 800 jobs was in addition to the human resource rationalization activity that the company has undertaken at its Michoud Operations.
About Lockheed Martin
Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin is primarily engaged in research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services.
The corporation’s primary business is with the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. federal government agencies. The company reported sales of $42.7 billion in the year 2008.