McDonnell Lays Off 250 in Southland : Restructure: A total of 650 received notices Friday as the St. Louis-based defense contractor continues cost-cutting.

McDonnell Douglas said Friday that it is laying off another 650 workers in St. Louis and Southern California as part of its restructuring efforts.

John F. McDonnell, chairman and chief executive of the nation’s largest defense contractor, said 400 workers in St. Louis and 250 in California received notices Friday.

Two hundred of the California jobs were cut in Huntington Beach and 50 in Santa Ana, officials said.

All but 50 of the layoffs in St. Louis and 30 in California were white-collar workers. White-collar workers received two weeks’ notice, and the union workers got notice called for in their contracts, typically 48 hours, the company said.

All of the layoffs came from what is now McDonnell Douglas Aerospace, McDonnell said. Those affected in St. Louis came from what used to be the Missile Systems Co. and McDonnell Aircraft Co.

The California jobs came primarily from what used to be McDonnell Douglas Space Systems Co. and McDonnell Douglas Electronic Systems Co. A few of the jobs there came from the C-17 transport program, officials said.

Spokeswoman Barbara Anderson said there was no target number of jobs to be eliminated in the restructuring program, and there may be more in the future.

She said the layoffs were separate from Wednesday’s layoff of 300 workers in St. Louis that were attributed to declining business in the F-15 and F-18 fighter plane programs.

McDonnell Douglas had announced in August that it was consolidating its six government aerospace businesses into two in an effort to reduce costs, improve efficiency and respond to the upheavals in an aerospace industry jolted by Pentagon cutbacks.