Gulfstream Thursday announced that it is laying off 1,200 workers and will furlough an additional 1,500 for five weeks. The company, is Savannah, Georgia’s largest private employer, with 6,000 employees in Georgia and 4,000 at other facilities in Texas, Wisconsin, California and 11 service centers spread throughout the country. The company says the job cuts will be spread throughout its facilities and were triggered by a shrinking order backlog as customers push back their orders waiting for positive economic news. Gulfstream spokesman Robert Baugniet said it has not helped that President Obama has singled out corporate jets as a symbol of greed and largesse, according to the Atlanta Journal and Constitution. Gulfstream’s upcoming fly-by-wire G650 long-range business jet is expected to sell for $60 million per copy.
As a large local employer, a slowdown at Gulfstream is expected to ripple through Savannah’s local economy. “It’s a very painful experience,” Baugniet told the Constitution. “We’ve got three generations of the same families working here, and we’re telling them, ‘Through no fault of your own, you’ve got to go.'”
