L3 Harris Technologies is intending to reduce its workforce by five percent on a global scale, which includes employees in Brevard County. The specific number of employees impacted was not disclosed by the defense contractor and aerospace company. There are more then 7,000 employees in Brevard county alone.
L3 Harris stated that the decision was necessary to optimize their operations. Nevertheless, workers informed Channel 9 that the company could have provided them with prior notification.
Chris Karsten, an employee along with numerous colleagues, expressed being caught off guard by the job cuts. Karsten is a father and a disabled veteran who sustained injuries during the Iraq War in 2003.
L3 Harris declined to disclose the number of jobs impacted or provide a detailed breakdown of the affected job locations. Regarding the reasons for the layoffs, the company said in a statement:
“L3Harris continues to focus on operational performance and delivering on our LHX NeXt commitments, including $1 billion in gross cost savings over the next three years. With this in mind, and having identified a series of opportunities to streamline our operations, we have made the difficult decision to right-size our workforce. As our industry’s Trusted Disruptor, we will continue to think differently about how we deliver value to both our customers and our shareholders.”
The company declined to provide an explanation for their failure to give advance notice to employees.
As of now, Florida’s unemployment rate sits at 3.1%.
Sean Snaith, director of the Institute for Economic Forecasting at the University of Central Florida, says he does expect the labor market to soften over the course of the year but does not anticipate a downturn. Snaith says there is a possibility of a recession.
