PhillyTablet Inquirer Daily News
Mobile
Home Delivery
philly.com
email
font size
options
 
Wednesday, July 20, 2011

US, Lockheed look to cut jobs (Update)

ANOTHER UPDATE: US says it plans to close four data centers in Philadelphia: two for the Department of Treasury, one each for Homeland Security and Justice. Part of a long list put out by President Obama's technology office, which appears to have taken government departments by surprise, as none of the three departments was initially able to say how many jobs are affected.  More here.

THIS MUCH IS CONFIRMED: The U.S. Treasury plans to close its Treasury Financial Management Service data center in Northeast Philadelphia by the end of the year, Treasury employees confirmed. The center is one of three being consolidated, to two remaining centers in Parkersburg, W. Va., and Kansas City. Treasury expects minimal job loss - just one position. It's part of the larger consolidation of hundreds of US data sites.

The center is located at Treasury's Philadelphia Regional Financial Center, which employs 190. (UPDATED and CORRECTED) It's one of three in the US that prints Social Security checks and other goverment payments. The three big laser printers at 13000 Townsend Rd. in Northeast Philly can produce 180,000 checks an hour. That center will remain open, a Treasury spokesman told me.

EARLIER: A Treasury Department computer facility in Philadelphia is among hundreds of redundant locations the U.S. Government plans to close by the end of 2011 as it consolidates data services and moves more applications from physical servers into the worldwide computing "cloud." (More on closings from NY Times here.)  

The office slated to close is operated by Treasury's Fiscal Management Service, said spokesman Matt Anderson. Officials couldn't immediately say how many workers here are losing their jobs and how many will be offered work elsewhere (say, at the big new IRS center at the former 30th Street Post Office, which replaces the old IRS complex in Northeast Philly.)

Separately, Lockheed Martin, which last we checked employed around 10,000 at its military and aerospace centers in Newtown Bucks County, King of Prussia, South Jersey and other Philadelphia-area sites, says it's urging 6,500 management and business enterprise employees to consider "voluntary layoffs." The move follows 1,500 job cuts in LM Aeronautics and 1,200 job cuts in LM Space Systems last month as the US cuts growth in military spending. Lockheed spokeswoman Jennifer Whitlow declined comment on how the cuts have affected LM's Philly-area payroll.
Posted by Joseph N. DiStefano @ 12:12 PM  Permalink | 1 comment
Comments   
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 1:40 PM, 07/20/2011
    Hope & change...hope & change. The only thing workers will be left with is little hope and a little pocket change. Hope & change...hope & change. Keep demonizing success, profit and the free market...and watch that unemployment rate rise! Obama= The Great Divider!
    — kelprod2


1 comments
About Joseph N. DiStefano
Joseph N. DiStefano writes this blog to feed his PhillyDeals column in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Joe has been a member of Bloomberg LP’s New York Finance Team, wrote the book “Comcasted,” taught writing at St. Joseph’s University, and studied economics and history at Penn. Reach Joe at 215-854-5194 and JoeD@phillynews.com
Advertise Here