Lockheed Martin to Lay Off 500 Workers - Update

The layoffs will involve the Bethesda-based company’s government IT and tech services businesses

Update 12:05 p.m. - Lockheed Martin announced Wednesday it will lay off approximately 500 workers as part of efforts to slim down its information technology workforce.

The Bethesda-based defense company said in a statement the layoffs are related to efforts to improve its Information Systems & Global Solutions (IS&GS) segment. The layoffs will include government IT and business technology services workers.

Dan Nelson, a spokesman for Lockheed Martin, said the company does not yet know where the majority of the layoffs will occur. He said employees at offices in the Washington, D.C.-area, Colorado, Pennsylvania and Texas could be affected.

The layoff announcement comes after the company bought Black Hawk helicopter maker Sikorsky Aircraft for $9 billion in July. After that purchase the company announced it would conduct a strategic review of its government IT services business, according to Reuters. That segment of the business has been struggling due to reduced government spending and increased competition, the wire service reported.

“We made these difficult decisions as part of our efforts to remain competitive in an extremely challenging environment where industry dynamics have shifted, customer budgets are constrained and competition has continued to escalate,” Sondra Barbour, executive vice president of the information systems segment, said in a statement.

The company says the layoffs will be both voluntary and involuntary. The IS&GS segment employs about 24,000 workers and accounted for about 16 percent of the company’s $45.6 billion in sales in 2014, according to its website.

Nelson said the company will know more about which offices will be affected once they find out how many employees decide to participate in the voluntary layoffs.

The company employs about 112,000 people worldwide.