Lower Demand Spurs Workforce Reduction

In response to slowing orders for new engines, General Electric, the world's largest manufacturer of jet engines, has announced plans to trim its workforce by 1,000 jobs, about 2.6 percent of the company's worldwide employees.

GE spokesman Rick Kennedy said the company will reduce numbers through attrition, voluntary departures and retirements.

Bloomberg reports that in 2007, GE logged a record 3,414 orders. But last year, orders fell to 2,908, attributed to declining passenger numbers in the wake of the global recession.

The GE Aviation division, which faces competition from United Technologies Corp.'s Pratt & Whitney unit and Rolls-Royce Group PLC, expects to show record revenue for 2008 of $19 billion.

In conjunction with joint partner CFM International, GE produced a record 2,150 engines last year, with a hefty backlog of orders for 9,200 more. Despite the economic downturn and other factors such as Boeing's delayed development of the 787 Dreamliner, GE has not received a single order cancellation.

GE Aviation chief executive David Joyce said, "We really are in an unprecedented time of market change as evidenced by the back half of 2008. Our ability today to predict the outcome of 2009 is more uncertain than normal as a result of the market volatility, and our planning takes this into account."

FMI: www.geae.com