PRATT & WHITNEY SHRINKS PAYROLL BY 206 WORKERS
ROBERT McCABE Business WriterSUN-SENTINEL
Pratt & Whitney on Friday laid off 206 of its Palm Beach County workers, the last of about 850 workers let go as part of a companywide restructuring announced in January.
Another 123 workers who volunteered will leave the company this month.
"Pratt's got to get smaller in order to survive," said Bob Carroll, a spokesman at Pratt's Government Engines & Space Propulsion operation in northwestern Palm Beach County.
"We have no more layoffs planned, but the defense industry is continuing to go down. We're going to have to keep a close eye on this and hope we can get through it," he said.
The loss of 1,230 employees at Pratt's Palm Beach County complex this year through layoffs and voluntary separations will bring total employment there to about 5,100, down from more than 6,300 in January.
The effect of the layoffs on Palm Beach County's economy will be about $88 million a year, said Larry Pelton, president of the Business Development Board of Palm Beach County.
The latest round of layoffs follows two others this year. About 300 workers were laid off in early June. Another 350 employees were laid off in February. A total of 380 employees will have left voluntarily since the cuts began, Carroll said.
Of the approximately 900 workers who had left Pratt before Friday, about 350 have sought help from the Private Industry Council of Palm Beach County, said Ken Montgomery, executive director.
The council, which is federally financed, assists laid-off workers.
Of the 350 who have sought help, about 50 have found other jobs, although not all of them in Palm Beach County. Some former Pratt workers have been placed with firms in Miami, Saudi Arabia and Maine, he said.
---- For more information about the Private Industry Council of Palm Beach County, call 1-800-556-5627.