GE is quitting the large transformer business.

Blaming declining markets, General Electric announced that it will withdraw from the business, a move that should cost 1,000 jobs by the end of 1987. The decision will mean the phase-out of about half of the 2,000 jobs at the company’s transformer division in Pittsfield, Mass., company spokesman R. Bruce Farren said. GE, which also operates a weapons plant and plastics research facilities in the area, has a work force of 7,700 in the western Massachusetts city.