Rolls-Royce to Cut 5,000 Jobs Worldwide

Airplane engine maker Rolls-Royce said it is cutting 5,000 jobs, or 11.5% of its worldwide work force, the latest casualties of the airline industry’s downturn after the terrorist attacks.

About 3,800 of the jobs to be eliminated are in Britain, the company said. It did not specify where the other 1,200 cuts would be made.

“We expect difficult market conditions for civil aerospace in 2002 and 2003, and we are taking the necessary actions required to re-size overheads and to align cost and capacity with demand,” Chief Executive John Rose said.

The company said it expected to sell 30% fewer jet engines in 2002 compared with this year, and it expected no growth in revenue from servicing engines.

Civil aerospace sales in 2002 are expected to be about $1.5billion lower than previously forecast, the company said.

The company’s main British plant in Derby, in central England, employs about 10,000 people out of the company’s total British work force of 30,000. Rolls-Royce has several other sites in England and Scotland.