DECATUR – Caterpillar Inc. confirmed Monday that new layoffs have been occurring at its factory operations in Decatur.
As is usual company policy, Peoria-based Caterpillar would not confirm the number or types of workers involved, or say when the latest round of job cuts started. Chatter on social media had pegged the total of jobs lost at more than 40, and said they targeted management positions ranging from engineers to superintendents.
Speaking to the Herald & Review, Caterpillar described the staff reductions as part of an “ongoing” effort by its various business divisions to reduce expenses and stay competitive in tough times. When company spokeswoman Rachel Potts was asked if “ongoing” meant more layoffs are likely, she said that was a reasonable conclusion.
“I think that is a fair statement across the company… and this is not just happening in Decatur,” she added. “It is happening truly globally as these businesses work to continue to get costs out.”
Caterpillar had telegraphed a new layoff punch was coming when it announced its second quarter results in July and said the costs of cutting jobs would rise substantially as it shed more workers. Caterpillar is now in an unprecedented fourth year of sales and revenues declines and slashing costs is its main coping mechanism. Layoff costs for 2016 are now expected to hit $700 million from a previous estimate of $550 million, a jump of 27 percent.
The company reported that its global workforce had dropped by close to 14,000 workers in the past 12 months as earlier layoffs took hold, falling from 126,800 in June 2015 to 112,900 by June of this year. The number of U.S workers let go totaled more than 7,000.
- TONY REID H&R Staff Writer
