Firms That Cut Payrolls by Nearly 250,000 Now Plan to Add New Jobs

Five of the companies that were heaviest with the hatchet in recent years are now hiring employees--although they will add only a fraction of the number they let go.

Sears Roebuck & Co., IBM, AT&T;, Boeing and Xerox together laid off nearly 250,000 people over the past three years. This year, they expect to hire 46,000 employees, or nearly one-fifth of the number laid off, according to a survey released Tuesday by the placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc.

“It is difficult and confusing for many people to understand how a company could lay off thousands of people one year and hire thousands the next,” said John A. Challenger, executive vice president of the placement firm. “Global competition and the changing economy meant some companies had to alter their businesses drastically or fail.”

For instance, the recession forced many of Boeing Co.’s commercial airline customers to cancel or delay orders. But last month, the Seattle-based manufacturer said it expected to build 15,900 new commercial jets worth $1.1 trillion over the next 20 years, 900 more planes than the company was predicting a year earlier.

To handle the demand, Boeing plans to hire nearly 8,200 employees. The company’s work force of 161,000 shrank by more than 50,000 employees since 1993 through layoffs and an early retirement incentive program.

Sears is opening 300 new stores and hiring about 12,000 new employees this year. Three years ago, the Chicago-based company cut 50,000 jobs when it killed the venerable Sears catalog operation and closed 113 stores.

In January, AT&T; Corp., said it would reduce its work force of 300,000 by 40,000 over three years. But on Tuesday, the company--citing unexpected growth withing parts of the company--again reduced the number of projected job losses it originally foresaw in a restructuring a half year ago.

AT&T; said it still plans to cut 40,000 jobs as it splits into three separate companies. Seventy percent, or 28,000, of those jobs will be eliminated by the end of 1996.

Now, the company says a number of employees have been reassigned to new positions in its WorldNet Internet access unit and wireless phone service. More jobs are expected when AT&T; enters the local telephone business.

IBM, based in Armonk, N.Y., hired 15,000 workers last year and expects to hire 10,000 more this year, according to the survey. In the past three years, the company cut 70,000 workers.

Xerox Corp., hired 800 workers in the first three months of the year, chiefly in sales and facility management. The Stamford, Conn.-based office machine manufacturer announced in 1993 it would slash more than 10,000 jobs--10% of its work force--and close some factories and service centers.

“You would have to say that their downsizing strategy is working for these companies,” Challenger said.