(WFSB) — Raytheon, the parent company of Pratt & Whitney, announced its plans for layoffs is deepening.
The company announced back in July that it was cutting more than 8,000 jobs.
On Wednesday, the company said that number has grown to 15,000.
Raytheon has yet to provide a breakdown of where the jobs cuts will take place, or if any Connecticut employees will be affected, as both Pratt & Whitney and Collins Aerospace have locations in other parts of the country.
A statement from CEO Greg Hayes said “I would tell you the commercial aero team has jumped on this crisis, and they’re driving about $2 billion in cost reduction and $4 billion in cash conservation actions this year. These cost actions include the elimination of more than 15,000 positions across our commercial aerospace and corporate organizations. Those headcount reductions are nearly double the previous estimate of around 8,500 that we gave you back in July. And we’re not done yet looking for further ways to reduce structural costs in all of our businesses.”
The airports are empty and the impact is being felt tremendously on aircraft companies.
“Air travel is likely to lag until such time people have trust, faith, and confidence they can safely travel,” said Brian Marks, University of New Haven.
University of New Haven Economics Professor Brian Marks predicts the impact on aviation will only get worse.
“Raytheon’s announcement suggesting they may not see a return of the commercial airline aspect of their business until 2023 is not a surprise,” Marks said.
Channel 3 asked for a breakdown of how many jobs in each sector will be cut, but Raytheon isn’t sharing that.
Both Pratt & Whitney and Collins Aerospace have locations around the country, so the full impact on Connecticut is still a mystery.
This news comes just days after Raytheon was awarded a $579 million contract from the Department of Defense. Experts say the defense side of the business is separate from the commercial side, so that injection of money wouldn’t have prevented the layoffs.
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