Hughes Electronics Posts $615.7-Million Loss : Earnings: The company cites restructuring costs. The red ink makes it likely that the firm’s parent, General Motors, will also post a loss.

General Motors’ Hughes Electronics division reported a second-quarter loss of $615.7 million Wednesday, citing the costs of a previously announced consolidation and restructuring plan. The division’s loss increases the likelihood that the nation’s top auto maker will report a quarterly loss when it announces overall financial results today.

Hughes Aircraft, the defense electronics subsidiary of Hughes Electronics, has announced plans to cuts it worldwide work force by 15%, or 9,000 jobs, by the end of 1993. The restructuring--prompted by big cuts in Pentagon spending--includes a major consolidation of Hughes facilities and the sale or discontinuance of some business lines.

While the company hasn’t specified which facilities and employees will be affected by the plan, most of the cuts are expected to be in Southern California, where two-thirds of the company’s workers are employed.

Hughes lost $615.7 million, or $1.46 a share, contrasted with earnings of $83.4 million, or 29 cents a share, for the second quarter of 1991. The 1992 results include a charge of $749.4 million--or $1.2 billion before taxes--for the cost of work-force reductions and other restructuring expenses. Hughes had announced the anticipated charge in June.

Revenue rose 3%, to $3 billion from $2.9 billion in the year-earlier quarter.

Before taking into account the loss at the Hughes unit, automotive analysts had predicted that GM would report a second-quarter profit of $250 million, or 40 cents a share. Any GM profit for the second quarter or first half is likely to be erased by the Hughes’ charge, which is equivalent to 96 cents a share of GM common stock.

The Detroit-based industrial giant returned to profitability for the first time since 1990 in the first quarter, when it eked out earnings of $179 million. GM lost $785 million in the second quarter of 1991.

GM has been struggling to restructure its money-losing North American car and truck operations.

Separately Wednesday, the auto maker said it expects about 6,300 workers to opt for special early retirement by Sept. 30 as part of a plan to reduce its North American salaried work force by 9,000, or 10%, by the end of 1992.

In remarks to reporters, William E. Hoglund, GM’s chief financial officer, said that about 4,000 of those workers accepted the early retirement plan in June alone, Bloomberg Business News reported.

A company spokesman in Detroit, who said he wouldn’t dispute Hoglund’s comments, said the early retirement plans are being offered to workers with at least 10 years service who will be 53 by the end of 1993, the Bloomberg news service said.

GM has said it wouldn’t disclose how many workers in total opted for the plan until the end of this year.

Eligible employees were given between March 1 and June 1 to decide whether to accept the offer.

Actual retirements must be taken between June 1 and Sept. 1 of this year, GM spokesman Mark Tanner said.

Hughes Electronics stock closed Wednesday at $25.625 per share, up $1.125, on the New York Stock Exchange. GM stock, which is traded separately, closed at $38.125 a share, down $1.125.

For the six-month period ended June 30, Hughes Electronics recorded a $505.3-million loss, or $1.02 a share. That contrasts with earnings of $203.6 million, or 52 cents a share, for the comparable period in 1991.

Hughes’ businesses include the manufacture of automotive and defense electronics, telecommunications equipment and space satellites.