Sikorsky Aircraft is laying off about 200 employees, about 1 percent of the company’s workforce, and the majority of jobs are in Connecticut, according to a statement from the company on Thursday.
“Sikorsky continues to look to a promising future, but today we face difficult challenges. U.S. and international government budgets are shrinking, our costs to compete are increasing, and many customers are delaying purchase decisions amid the economic uncertainty,” Paul Jackson, spokesman for the company, said.
Most of Sikorsky’s workforce is in Connecticut, with more than 8,600 employees, Jackson said.
How many people in Connecticut will be laid off is not known.
The 200 layoffs are spread across operations in eight other states. The company said the out-of-state layoffs affect a relatively small number of people in each, but they are not disclosing specific breakdowns.
“Given all this, we must do all we can to protect our competitiveness while continuing to invest in our future. As a result, today we took the very difficult but necessary step of implementing a workforce reduction throughout the enterprise to lower costs in line with business requirements and resources,” Jackson said. “As is our practice, we will support those who were affected by providing outplacement and other services and benefits.”
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