Advertisement GE Aviation to lay off 238 engineers in Cincinnati area Move part of overall reduction in engineering force Share Shares Copy Link Copy

One of Greater Cincinnati's largest employers is cutting hundreds of high paying jobs.More than 300 General Electric engineers were laid off Thursday morning.The company said, as many of the current projects shift from the development phase to the production phase, there was no longer a need for the number of engineers the company employed.Watch this storyAt the nearby Village Shoppe and Go Thursday, Steve Greiwe prepared for the evening rush."We keep 60 different craft beers just for that taste of those folks that come in here," Greiwe said.Quite a few of his Evendale customers may be coming in with a bitter taste in their mouths after learning nearby GE laid off a few hundred people."It could be something where these guys start coming in or gals start coming in this afternoon and before you know it they're like 'wow, guess what I just got a pink slip,' so we'll see what happens," said Greiwe.A total of 307 GE engineers, including 238 in Greater Cincinnati they are being let go.In a statement, GE Spokesman Rick Kennedy wrote, "Significant effort has been made to move as many engineers as possible to other positions at GE Aviation and other GE businesses. Also, GE Aviation has offered voluntary early retirement to several hundred eligible engineers."Kennedy said the reduction represents about 7 percent of the overall GE aviation engineering population in the United States.He said the company will still employ more than 3,000 engineers in Cincinnati.Looking at the bigger picture, the few hundred may not seem like a lot, but it's still 307 people and families affected."We do have a lot of GE customers. In fact, a lot of businesses that support this business, including GE, is what makes us thrive all the time," said Greiwe. "It'll have a ripple effect through the whole area."Kennedy said, "The impacted engineers are being provided an array of severance benefits, including outplacement services, in-house job fairs with other engineering companies associated with GE Aviation, as well as wages and medical coverages for a period of time based on years of service."