More bad news on jobs front

Republican- American
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Last Monday brought more bad economic news for Connecticut. Sikorsky Aircraft will eliminate 419 jobs in Stratford and Shelton beginning this fall. Worldwide, the helicopter manufacturer — part of United Technologies Corp., whose Pratt & Whitney subsidiary closed an engine-repair plant in Cheshire and Connecticut Airfoil Repair Operation in East Hartford last year — will cut 567 positions, so Connecticut will take the brunt of the latest round of job losses.

Sikorsky and Pratt are old-line Connecticut employers, paying blue-collar workers well to perform industrial work requiring a high level of technical skill. But these companies are a dying breed in a state whose population increasingly relies on government work and service-sector jobs. "In 2000, Connecticut had one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country, just 2.1 percent in October, compared to a national rate of 4 percent," said 24/7 Wall St., a Web service that carries financial news and opinion. The site recently listed Connecticut as No. 10 on the list of states where blue-collar jobs are disappearing. "Since then, unemployment has risen to 9.1 percent. ... More than 90,000 blue-collar jobs were lost in the state during that time."

UTC has shown remarkable compassion for its employees, having found jobs for all the Cheshire and East Hartford workers who wanted to stay with the company, and promising buyout provisions for Sikorsky workers contemplating retirement. But that doesn't change the fact this reduction reflects an abrupt 20 percent retreat by Sikorsky, which had grown in Connecticut by about 2,000 workers over the last 10 years. Moreover, Sikorsky faces the expiration of its lucrative Black Hawk helicopter contract with the Department of Defense next year.