New Hampshire’s number one manufacturing employer announced Monday that it will lay off 200 people in the state.
The layoffs amount to nearly 5% of BAE System’s local workforce. It’s part of a nationwide reduction of 300 people in the defense contractor’s electronic systems division, headquartered in Nashua. Two thirds of the layoffs will be in New Hampshire.
BAE Systems’ spokesman Kristin Gossel cites the drawdown in U.S. military involvement abroad as one factor behind the layoffs. But, she says, sequestration, (the automatic federal budget cuts that Congress postponed to March), was not a factor.
“It’s definitely looming out there. We’re definitely aware, and like everyone else in the defense industry and defense community, concerned about it and hoping that Congress comes to a resolution and that it doesn’t happen, but we were making these adjustments besides that—even without the impact of sequestration.”
Employees affected by the layoffs will be notified on March 4th.