The pink slips could once again be rearing their ugly heads.
This time staff at BAE Systems’ US ship maintenance business are reportedly facing job cuts as a result of the government’s military spending cuts.
The British arms producer could reportedly be making 3,500 – around 70 percent – staff redundant as a result of the US’ navy putting a halt on maintenance work on 13 ships. However, according to Bloomberg the cuts could also have a domino affect on on the company’s suppliers.
It has not been a good week for BAE.
Yesterday the company, which employs around 93,500 across the world, announced that it had made a loss in 2012.
Underlying profit fell six percent to £1.89 billion in the year, while pre-tax profits has dropped to £1.4 billion from £1.5 billion.
It was also bad news for sales, which fell seven percent to £17.8 billion from £19.2 billion in 2012, which the company said was a contributing factor in the failure to a merge with European defence firm and Airbus owner EADS.
The company said the losses were as a result of US defence cuts, as well as reduced military activity in Iraq and Afghanistan.
