All Things Recruiting & Employment

Home | Jobs | Free Resume Builder | Recruiting News | Outplacement Services | NYC jobs | Audio jobs

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

 

NASA Expected to Cut Fewer Jobs

NASA is expected to cut fewer Florida jobs at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral than it had originally expected to in 2010. The planned layoffs are directly tired to the retirement of a shuttle that will happen during that year.

According to the Orlando Sentinel, Congress has been informed that the worst case scenario of 6,400 lost jobs that the agency said they expected in April has been re-evaluated. Some officials are now saying that NASA is expecting to reduce this figure by at least 1,000 fewer jobs, making the highest number possible to be somewhere around less than 5,000.

NASA has declined to comment on the number of jobs to be cut until later in the week, when it will be releasing its improved employment forecast for the Kennedy Space Center on October 8th. Congressional staff members have said that the decrease in the numbers that the agency is expect to announce are due to “transition” jobs that NASA was incapable of factoring into the equation back in April.

The Florida jobs that may be cut in 2010 are the result of NASA retiring the shuttle in order to start the Constellation moon rocket program, which the agency says is not expected to begin its flights till 2015. NASA will only be able to start this program if it is able to conquer budget and technical issues that have been problems with the program’s Ares I rocket and the Orion capsule.

NASA’s Cape Canaveral location is not the only one expected to cut jobs when the shuttle is retired. Others include the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, and the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, Louisiana. Out of all of these, the Kennedy Space Center is expected to have to cut more jobs than any of the others.

“Out best guess has been 3,000 to 4,000, not 6,000 to 7,000,” NASA Chief Mike Griffin told a Senate committee back in June. According to him, the first estimate did not take into consideration around 3,000 jobs that would be created by new programs like the Ares V heavy-lift rocket and the Altair lunar lander.

Officials in Florida have tried to discourage NASA from trying to fix the losses of long-term, high skilled jobs with temporary positions for construction or demolition work. NASA once again declined to comment on the number of jobs will be cut or what type of work the “transition” jobs will be until the official figures are released.

“NASA will submit the Workforce Transition Strategy report to Congress on Wednesday,” said NASA spokesman Michael Cabbage. “We will be happy to comment on the report after members of Congress have had an opportunity to review its content.”

Labels:






<< Home

Archives

July 2006   August 2006   September 2006   October 2006   November 2006   December 2006   January 2007   February 2007   March 2007   April 2007   May 2007   June 2007   July 2007   August 2007   September 2007   October 2007   November 2007   December 2007   January 2008   February 2008   March 2008   April 2008   May 2008   June 2008   July 2008   August 2008   September 2008   October 2008   November 2008   December 2008   January 2009   February 2009   March 2009   April 2009   May 2009   June 2009   July 2009   August 2009   September 2009   October 2009   November 2009   December 2009   January 2010   February 2010   March 2010   April 2010   May 2010   June 2010   July 2010   August 2010   September 2010   October 2010   November 2010   December 2010   January 2011   February 2011   March 2011   April 2011   May 2011   June 2011   July 2011   August 2011   September 2011   October 2011   November 2011  

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?