Raytheon Cutting 100 Jobs in El Segundo

Raytheon Co. said Tuesday that it is cutting about 100 administrative jobs at its sprawling El Segundo operations as part of a reorganization to beef up its defense businesses.

The defense contractor said the job cuts were part of plans to streamline headquarters staff. In August, the company announced it was combining the headquarters staff of its Electronic Systems unit in El Segundo, where about 6,500 engineers work, with its Command, Control and Communications business based in Marlborough, Mass.

After combining the two units, the company then created seven business divisions focused around specific products and services such as space systems and information technology to help bolster sales to the Pentagon.

Raytheon, which has been struggling to beef up defense profit amid a slump in its commercial aircraft business, said the move would remove a layer of management and cut administrative costs.

Separately, the company said it would cut about 300 engineering jobs in Massachusetts as a result of losing a major satellite contract. The company employs about 78,000 people worldwide.

A Raytheon spokesman in El Segundo, where the company has been on a hiring binge amid an upturn in defense spending, said many of the 100 employees affected by the reorganization probably will be placed in other jobs or offered early retirement.

Shares of Lexington, Mass.-based Raytheon fell $2 to $27.15 on the New York Stock Exchange.