Science Applications International Corporation to Cut 200 Jobs

When it comes to science there are a lot of things that you may think about where and how it gets done. If you were hard pressed, could you name five companies that make science their first priority? Did you list include a company called Science Applications International Corporation?
Many people have not heard of the company, despite its notable size. So, before we talk about the jobs that they are cutting back on here is a look at how the company has chosen to describe itself, “Founded by J. Robert Beyster, Ph.D., and a small group of scientists in 1969, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), a FORTUNE 500® company, and its subsidiaries now have approximately 40,000 employees worldwide.” Well apparently the company is getting ready to do all of that without about 200 of their workers.

The company is cutting back on 200 workers from one of its locations at MacDill Air Force Base in the city of Tampa.  These jobs cuts will be more than enough to qualify as a mass layoff action under the current federal guidelines.

For those of you who are not familiar with the idea of a mass layoff action here is a look at how the federal government defines the term, “The Mass Layoff Statistics (MLS) program collects reports on mass layoff actions that result in workers being separated from their jobs. Monthly mass layoff numbers are from establishments which have at least 50 initial claims for unemployment insurance (UI) filed against them during a 5-week period. Extended mass layoff numbers (issued quarterly) are from a subset of such establishments—where private sector nonfarm employers indicate that 50 or more workers were separated from their jobs for at least 31 days.” Under the terms of a mass layoff action the workers must be given several weeks of notice before they can actually be taken off of the payrolls and put onto the unemployment line.

Interestingly enough the company’s latest news release was not about the loss of 200 jobs, but was instead about the a multi-million dollar contract that the company has recently acquired. Here is an excerpt from that press release, “MCLEAN, Va., July 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) [NYSE: SAI] announced today it was awarded a task order by the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) Federal Systems Integration and Management Center to provide Continental United States-based analytical, operational and intelligence services in support of Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) Counter-IED Operations/Intelligence Integration Center (COIC) mission integration, training and operations functions.  The task order has a five-year period of performance and a total contract value of approximately $76 million.  The task order was awarded under the JIEDDO COIC Operations Support services contract vehicle.”

Of course, they are not the only defense contractor to be feeling the pinch of the current economy. For those of you who missed out on our earlier coverage here is an excerpt that will get you up to speed on much larger cuts to a similar organization, “It looks like the management of Lockheed Martin is at it again. The company is going to be cutting back on workers yet again, and this time the numbers are pretty serious. The company is estimating that they are going to need to cut about 10,000 jobs when all is said and done. The threats of job cuts come from a proposed action by congress. In the propose action by congress goes through, a $1.2 trillion set of job cuts from the federal budget as part of a plan to help decrease the federal deficit, then the company is threat of job losses is very likely to become a reality.”