Restructuring may not be over at Hughes Electronics: more jobs could go at county's largest private employer.

More jobs could go at county's largest private employer

The restructuring of GM Hughes Electronics Corp., Los Angeles County's largest private employer, may not be over, a company spokesman said last week.

The spokesman, Rand Christensen, said continues cuts in military and aerospace spending could force more layoffs and structural changes at the company, which has about 25,000 employees in the county. In Los Angeles County, GM Hughes is better known as Hughes Aircraft Co.

The spokesman said, however, that there are no current plans to make further work force cuts organizational changes.

Among some workers at Hughes, there have been rumors and speculation that the company is preparing to announce yet another round of layoffs. Since 1986 when there were 82,000 Hughes workers worldwide, employment has dropped to just over 55,000. The decline would have been even greater if it were not for Hughes' August 1992 acquisition of General Dynamics Corp.'s missile division, which added more than 6,000 workers to the company payroll.

Hughes' latest reorganizational changes spurred speculation among workers of yet more change to come.

A month ago, GM Hughes announced the latest in a series of structural changes by consolidating its three defense and aerospace divisions into a new Hughes Aerospace & Electronics Co.

"The formation of HAEC will strengthen our operations and improve our capacity to compete in the declining defense market," said C. Michael Armstrong, chairman and chief executive officer of GM Hughes Electronics Corp.

Hughes Aircraft, which is based in the Westchester section of Los Angeles, is an operating division of GM Hughes Electronics. The other operating units of GM Hughes are Delco Electronics Corp. and the new Hughes Aerospace and Electronics Co. GM Hughes Electronics, which is also based in Westchester, is owned by General Motors Corp.

At the time of the latest restructuring, Armstrong said in a statement that company executives will study the new organizational structure "in the next several months ... to determine whether there may be a resulting impact on employment levels."

Last week Christensen said no follow-up decisions have been made on the organizational changes.

The three Hughes Aircraft sectors that were consolidated into the new company were the aerospace and defense, missile systems, and systems units.

Starting in 1991, Hughes has gone through at least two reorganizations that company officials said were designed to allow it to compete for more commercial work, as well as a shrinking number of defense and aerospace contracts. In the process, Hughes has also announced layoffs because of declining defense work.

Christensen said this year companywide employment will probably drop by 2,000 to 3,000 workers as a result of the previously announced consolidation of Hughes missile and engineering divisions into a single operation in Tucson Ariz. The consolidation includes moving the missile engineering division out of Canoga Park to Tucson.

Last year GM Hughes Electronics had revenue of $13.5 billion and net earnings of $922 million compared to $12.3 billion and a loss of $921 million in 1992. The company said excluding special one-time charges, 1992 earnings would have been almost $700 million.

Revenue and earnings from Hughes Aircraft are not broken out from GM Hughes' financial statements but Christensen said between 60 and 65 percent of the company's revenues are from defense and aerospace contracts. In the late 1980s, Hughes' defense work was more than 80 percent of its revenues.

Because of the possibility of further acquisitions in the defense and aerospace field, Christensen said the company does not have a goal in mind in terms of the mix between commercial and defense/aerospace work.

Hughes Aircraft is an electronics company that designs and builds military systems. On the commercial side, it is a major builder of communications satellites.

All its layoffs have been connected to its defense work. Its satellite business is thriving and this year it expect s to launch more commercial space vehicles than in any previous year, according to Hughes officials.