SUNNYVALE — Lockheed Martin is cutting 4,000 jobs — including 200 in Sunnyvale — as the company continues to look for ways to lower costs amid reduced government spending.
The 4,000 employment cuts amount to about 3.5 percent of its workforce,
Prior to these staff reductions, Lockheed eliminated 260 jobs in Sunnyvale, including 100 positions in June and another 163 in September, according to official notices Lockheed Martin filed with state government agencies.
“In the face of government budget cuts and an increasingly complex global security landscape, these actions are necessary for the future of our business,” CEO Marilyn Hewson said Thursday in a statement.
Bethesda, Md.-based Lockheed Martin, maker of Patriot missile defense system and the F-35 and F-16 fighter planes, will close plants in Goodyear, Ariz.; Akron, Ohio; Newtown, Pa.; and Horizon City, Texas; as well as four buildings at its Sunnyvale campus, by mid-2015, eliminating 2,000 jobs.
Another 2,000 positions will be cut in its information systems and global solutions, mission system and training, and space systems units by 2014’s end.
Lockheed Martin said it will shift work and some employees to facilities in Denver and Valley Forge, Pa. The company is also reviewing other possible plants to which it could relocate programs, including facilities in Owego, N.Y. and Orlando, Fla.
This year’s staff reductions in Sunnyvale amount to roughly 10 percent Lockheed Martin’s workforce there. Once the cutbacks are complete, the defense contractor will still employ more than 5,800 in Sunnyvale, said Chip Eschenfelder, a Lockheed spokesman.
Lockheed Martin said it has cut its workforce to 116,000 employees from 146,000 since 2008.
“These cutbacks won’t hurt as much as they would have in the past, because Silicon Valley has really matured and is a lot less dependent on defense contractors,” said Scott Anderson, chief economist with Bank of the West. “Growth drivers like information technology, social networks, the Internet, mobile, are creating the jobs now.”
Last month the company said that revenue would decline “slightly” next year on likely federal budget cuts.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.