As the economic downturn deepens in Sacramento, three more area employers have instituted layoffs in recent weeks.
The cutbacks are all in Rancho Cordova – at Aerojet, Wachovia Bank and failed mortgage lender IndyMac Bank – and affect 247 workers in total, putting further pressure on the metro area's economy.
The unemployment rate in greater Sacramento rose to 7.3 percent in July, the most recent month available and the highest since January 1996. During the past year, the region has lost 9,100 jobs, a 1 percent decline.
Aerojet confirmed Tuesday that it plans to lay off up to 99 workers by early October. The layoffs represent about 6 percent of the company's Rancho Cordova work force, said Linda Cutler, a spokeswoman for Aerojet parent GenCorp Inc.
The downsizing "is not a reflection of major problems," she said. "It's a slowdown or reduction in a number of programs … normal fluctuations in the kind of work we do." Aerojet mainly builds rocket engines for the Defense Department and NASA.
She said the cutbacks have nothing to do with the recent management upheaval in which GenCorp's largest shareholder, a New York hedge fund, took control of the board of directors.
Meanwhile, Wachovia said Tuesday it was laying off 20 workers at its student-loan division in Rancho Cordova.
Spokeswoman Ferris Morrison said the layoffs were the result of Wachovia's decision to exit a fairly small segment of the education market covering private loans to undergraduates.
IndyMac's layoffs weren't a surprise. When the big Pasadena-based bank was taken over by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in July, a wholesale mortgage division in Rancho Cordova was left in limbo. As of last Friday, 128 workers were let go, according to a filing with the state Employment Development Department.
Call The Bee's Dale Kasler, (916) 321-1066.
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