GE Aviation to cut 1,000 jobs in 2009

GE Aviation, the jet-engine manufacturing unit of the United States-based General Electric Company, says it will remove 1,000 white-collar workers in 2009. With this, we think we can officially declare the 2009 job cut season open!

The 2009 job cuts, a company spokesman was quoted as saying, would be brought about through attrition, retirements, buyout packages and a few layoffs. He said in a statement: “This is the most difficult year for anyone in aviation to try to forecast,” putting the blame on the global financial crisis.
The job cuts would represent about 2.6% of GE Aviation’s global workforce. The company’s “hourly ranks” will not lose jobs.

Worldwide, GE Aviation employs 39,000 people, including about 16,000 salaried workers. However, the company said it had no plans to reduce its manufacturing operations, despite the planned job cuts 2009.

GE Aviation, headquartered in Evendale, Ohio, the United States, supplies aircraft engines for a majority of commercial aircraft worldwide. It is the world’s biggest maker of jet engines. The company competes with the Pratt & Whitney unit of United Technologies Corporation and the Rolls-Royce Group.

In the statement, GE Aviation said that it was trimming jobs because it expected commercial airlines to cut down orders for new aircraft in 2009. The company has a substantial backlog of orders and few major order cancellations, it added.

Airline industry ahd a tough time in 2008 due to the high ATF prices in the beginning of the year, and later the full impact of the recession hit their profits despite the reduced aviation fuel prices towards the end of 2008. It looks like things are not going to get any better in 2009, and aviation sector job cuts and bankruptcies are going to continue.

GE Aviation said its backlog of commercial engine stands at about 9,200 and that the company made a record 2,150 commercial engines in 2008.

David Joyce, president of GE Aviation, was quoted by the website cincinnati.com as saying that the company would end the year 2009 “with a reduced head count.” He added: “Considering the unprecedented collapse of the global economy in 2008, GE Aviation is being cautious about the year ahead.”

The collapse of financial markets and the slump in the economic growth at the end of 2008, David Joyce stressed, “dramatically reduced GE Aviation’s ability to forecast the year ahead. The revenues of GE Aviation for 2008 are expected to touch $19 billion, up from $16.8 billion in 2007, Joyce said.

GE Aviation’s parent company, General Electric Company, based in Fairfield, Connecticut, the United States, had forecast a 2008 revenue of about $185 billion in December 2008.