General Dynamics to Cut 500 Jobs Over Year, Most in S.D.
In the latest of a series of cost-cutting measures, General Dynamics will eliminate 500 jobs or nearly 10% of the payroll at its Space Systems Division over the next year. Virtually all of the jobs to be cut are in San Diego, the company said Wednesday.
The belt tightening has already affected other General Dynamics divisions in San Diego in recent months as the company had moved to “downsize” itself in anticipation of defense spending cutbacks in coming years. General Dynamics, San Diego County’s largest private employer, employs 17,500 in four divisions in the county.
Despite the cost of the Persian Gulf War, the company has said that it expects the conflict to have no short-term effect on orders or employment levels.
General Dynamics’ Space Systems division, which also cut 117 jobs in 1990, makes Atlas missiles that it sells to the U.S. military and to private customers. Currently, the division has a backlog of 10 orders for Atlas rockets from military customers and 24 orders from commercial clients.
The Space Systems Division job cuts are not in response to any specific loss of business or program cutbacks, General Dynamics spokeswoman Julie Andrews said Wednesday.
Rather, the move is part of a general belt tightening by the defense contractor in response to federal budgetary constraints.
The Space Systems division now employs 5,160 workers, the majority of whom are in San Diego. Jobs will be reduced by layoffs and attrition, a spokesperson said.
Last November, the company announced that 450 jobs, or 15% of the total, would be cut at its Electronics Division in San Diego. The division’s principal products are test and training equipment for military aircraft. In explaining the layoffs, General Dynamics said demand for the equipment had declined along with orders for military aircraft.
About 60 jobs were also cut last year at General Dynamics’ Convair division, which makes the Tomahawk cruise missiles, the weapon whose reported accuracy has received much attention in the first week of the Persian Gulf War.
