Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 27, 1993 TAG: 9301270101
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
CUTBACKS STRIKE AGAIN
Four of the nation's largest corporations announced cutbacks Tuesday ranging from lower dividends to job eliminations and slower production schedules.The restructuring of International Business Machines Corp. continued as the company announced it would slice its stock dividend by more than half. IBM also said it will replace Chief Executive John F. Akers.
Continuing losses in the airline industry have forced Boeing Co. to build fewer jets, while McDonnell Douglas and United Technologies Corp. will eliminate jobs.
The news of corporate austerity comes one day after Sears, Roebuck & Co. said it would eliminate about 50,000 jobs by early next year, close stores and discontinue its catalog business.
IBM cut its dividend to stockholders 55 percent, from $4.84 per share annually to $2.16 per share. The move is expected to save the company $1.5 billion.
United Technologies plans to eliminate 10,500 jobs at its Pratt & Whitney jet engine subsidiary by the end of next year. Most of the cuts are expected in Connecticut.
Boeing said it would build fewer jets and trim employment by an unspecified number of jobs. Boeing, the largest maker of commercial jets in the world, cited troubles in the airline industry and financial problems at one of the world's leading aircraft leasing companies.
In a related announcement, American Airlines said late Tuesday it would delay delivery for a year of eight Boeing jets it had planned to buy in 1994. United, Northwest and other major airlines have delayed or canceled orders for new planes.
McDonnell Douglas, which earlier in the month said it would eliminate 4,000 jobs at its Douglas Aircraft Co. subsidiary, said it was planning another 4,700 job cuts to bring the total work force reduction to 10 percent. The company has been stung by lower defense spending and shrinking airline budgets.
"What seems to be happening is that these very large companies, the leaders in their field, have hit a wall," said Eric Greenberg, survey director at the American Management Association of New York. "They're hitting a wall and spattering all over the floor."
"The majority of jobs we're losing are professional positions, impacting the 25-to-55 age bracket, people who should be at their earnings peak," said Kathy Masera, publisher of California Job Journal, an employment newspaper in Sacramento. "These are the people who buy homes, buy cars, have their kids in school. They're the ones with the mortgages."