Oshkosh Corp. [OSK] said Thursday it plans to cut about 700 hourly jobs from its defense division’s workforce this summer due to cuts in military spending.
In addition to the hourly worker cuts, Oshkosh said it would eliminate about 60 salaried positions beginning in July with most of these being temporary employees and those retiring. Once the layoffs are in effect, Oshkosh Defense will employ about 1,850 people.
“We need to reshape our workforce with U.S. defense spending down as a result of tight government budgets and a return to peacetime operations,” John Urias, president of Oshkosh Defense, said in a statement. “We have gone to great lengths to minimize and delay the impact of the reduced spending on our Defense workforce.”
To help mitigate the impact on affected employees, Oshkosh said it will reach out to government workforce development agencies and local employers and host job fairs to help its employees in the transition.
Oshkosh Defense manufactures an array of trucks and related systems for the U.S. military.