Northrop to Call Back, Hire 650 Workers in ’96

Northrop Grumman Corp., benefiting from an upswing in orders for commercial aircraft, plans to call back or hire about 650 workers this year, including 240 at its jetliner parts factory in Hawthorne, the company’s chairman said Wednesday.

The hiring “will help offset some of the job reductions in California we announced earlier this year,” which amounted to 2,100 positions, Chairman Kent Kresa told stockholders at Northrop Grumman’s annual meeting in Santa Monica.

Those cuts mainly stemmed from an expected slowdown in production of Northrop Grumman’s B-2 stealth bomber. But no additional layoffs are planned for the rest of the year, Kresa said in an interview after the meeting.

Northrop Grumman’s commercial aircraft unit builds fuselages for Boeing Co.’s 747 jumbo jet, along with parts for several other jetliners. The company’s production of 747 fuselages, or “shipsets,” will double to four per month by early next year, he said.

Kresa also said Northrop Grumman is considering whether to shed certain of its operations, which he declined to identify except to say they are not likely to be “large-scale dispositions.” The businesses that might be divested, he said, have combined annual sales of $200 million to $400 million.

Northrop Grumman has grown rapidly in recent years by making several big acquisitions, including Grumman Corp., Vought Aircraft Co. and, most recently, the defense electronics group of Westinghouse Electric Corp.

Kresa said that although Northrop Grumman has traditionally been an airplane producer, electronics will account for 60% of the company’s sales by 2000.