DRS Technologies (Florida) Lays Off 150

Another rising trend that we have seen here at TDS is mass layoffs involving the defense war industry. Here is nwfdalitynews.com with the details on the latest:

Local defense contractor DRS Technologies laid off about a quarter of its staff Thursday.

DRS, located at 645 Anchors St. in the Fort Walton Beach Commerce and Technology Park, let go about 150 employees.

“In this time, it’s really aligning our staffing levels with the current business realities and the outlook for the rest of the year,” said Richard Goldberg, senior vice president of public affairs for DRS. “Our business is contract driven, and between the downturns in defense spending and other efficiencies that you try to do to remain competitive, (that) caused us to have to adjust the workforce at that facility.”

DRS’ Fort Walton Beach plant was the only location to have layoffs Thursday. Goldberg said the cut was across the board in every department, including hourly employees and managers.

The company still employs about 450 people in Fort Walton Beach.

“We’re committed to that operation long-term,” Goldberg said. “This adjustment is cyclical. When you do have surges in your business you have to increase your workforce, and when contracts get completed or are completed ahead of schedule, you have to adjust accordingly.

Here is the problem with the assessment by Mr. Goldberg in that last paragraph. America is fundamentally insolvent, and these layoffs are occurring at a time when defense war spending is merely leveling off and has not yet really begun to decline. So there is going to be a "cyclical adjustment" all right...it's just going to be a downward spiral as the military-industrial complex slowly collapses under its own bloated and unsustainable weight.