Northrop to Lay Off 1,000 Workers : Aerospace: The cuts in its Southland aircraft division will begin within the next 90 days and are expected to be completed by the end of the year.

In the latest evidence of shrinkage in the aerospace industry, Northrop Corp. said Wednesday that it will lay off about 1,000 Southland employees of its aircraft division by the end of the year.

Within the next 90 days, 500 employees will receive layoff notices, said Northrop spokesman Ron Owens.

The division--which employs 11,700 at facilities in El Segundo, Hawthorne, Anaheim and Torrance--expects another 1,000 jobs to be eliminated by normal attrition in 1992. It manufactures portions of the Navy Hornet strike fighter, builds fuselages for the 747 aircraft as a subcontractor to Boeing Corp. and has a missile and unmanned vehicles group.

The cuts come on top of previously announced plans to reduce employment in Northrop’s B-2 division by about 1,500 as a result of President Bush’s proposal to cap B-2 production at 20 aircraft. Half of the job cuts will be layoffs, the other half attrition.

“Obviously, this is being done because of competitive challenges that the company’s facing and the need to make sure we’re in a strong position to compete effectively for the future,” Owens added.

The company is also examining a flattening of the aircraft division’s management structure, Owens said. “We’re trying to remove and reduce expenses in every area-- every area,” he said. “One of the things being looked at is how the management structure of the division is set up, and if it’s at all possible, to flatten that structure to do so.”

The aerospace industry in California is expected to lose 24,000 jobs by the end of 1992 and 20,000 additional jobs in 1993. Since 1988, when the number of jobs in aerospace peaked at 375,000 statewide, about 61,000 jobs have been lost, according to analysts.