Lockheed to cut 340 employees, 190 voluntarily

Lockheed Martin Corp. will reduce its human resources roles by some 340 employees, more than half of whom have accepted a corporate buyout.

“We recently concluded the voluntary layoff program that was offered to all U.S.-based salaried employees in Lockheed Martin Corporate Headquarters and Enterprise Business Services," said company spokesman Rob Porter in a statement e-mailed to Washington Technology by Lockheed's public relations office Sept. 8. "Of the 6,500 eligible employees, approximately 190 employees have volunteered to take the program and will exit the company by early October."

“After a review of the future requirements of the business, we have determined a need to implement an involuntary reduction to eliminate an additional 150 EBS positions. The employment reductions are necessary to improve the affordability of our business and increase operational efficiency,” the statement added.

In June, Lockheed announced that it would lay off 1,200 employees from its space systems sector by the end of the year.

"In today's economic environment, we have two choices: Make painful decisions now or pay a greater price down the road,” Joanne Maguire, executive vice president of Lockheed Martin Space Systems, said in a news release at the time. “This is a difficult but necessary action to improve efficiencies and make our business more competitive going forward,” she said.

But that figure grew to 6,500 when the company later announced a program of voluntary layoffs targeted at salaried employees who report to corporate headquarters and provide internal business services.

Lockheed said the layoffs would help align the corporate staff with the needs of its businesses, which also have been making staffing cuts during the past year.

Lockheed Martin Corp., of Bethesda, Md., ranks No. 1 on Washington Technology’s 2011 Top 100 list of the largest federal government contractors.