Lockheed Martin, the defense contractor, has shared that it is looking to cut about 1,200 employees as Spring rolls in, as the company fuses together two of its business divisions. Also, the firm has shared that it foresees a slowdown in its upcoming projects from the Pentagon.

According to the executives, the job cuts are being undertaken to help lower costs and will also affect a range workers, right from administrative assistants to engineers, and even Vice Presidents. From which offices the employees will be cut has not been shared yet, but they are expected to be notified by early April.

"The layoffs are a result of redundancies created by the integration of the two businesses as well as a general staffing imbalance based on projected 2010 workload in our business. We decided we needed to take out some jobs to be more cost-effective", said Anne Marie Squeo, a Lockheed spokeswoman.

Last year as well, Lockheed had cut as many as 730 jobs at its Owego, N. Y. division, after the Government canceled a program to replace the fleet of Presidential helicopters.