Layoffs at Newport News Shipbuilding could top 1,500 from now through 2016 as the company copes with a temporary drop in work, the company president told employees this week.
In a letter to the workforce, President Matt Mulherin said layoffs will exceed 500 people this year, with more details expected the fall. Next year, job cuts will "likely" exceed 1,000, he said. Those layoffs wil be announced as work drops across the yard.
The cutbacks will hit both salaried and hourly workers. There will also be other cost reduction measures.
The 2015 layoffs will occur in the fall and the 2016 layoffs will occur as the workload drops across the yard.
Less work at the Newport News yard, Mulherin said, is partly due to the completion of three large projects within about 18 months: work on the aircraft carriers Gerald R. Ford, USS Abraham Lincoln, and USS Enterprise.
According to the website for Huntington Ingalls Industries, the shipyard’s parent company, the Newport News yard employs more than 23,000 people — which means this wave of layoffs will cut the overall workforce by about 6.5 percent.