Almost 400 jobs are to be lost at two factories in Northern Ireland, it was announced today.
Nearly 250 jobs will go at Belfast aerospace company Shorts and another 135 people are set to be made redundant with the closure of a firm which makes cable wire at Carrickfergus, Co Antrim.
The job losses at Shorts will be on top of the 460 jobs which the company announced earlier this month would have to go before the end of the year.
A spokesman for the trade union shop stewards at the east Belfast company said the management told them there would need to be a further 239 job cuts, taking the total of job losses to 700.
Shorts is owned by the Canadian aerospace company Bombardier, which said recently that jobs would have to be cut because of the depressed worldwide aircraft market caused by the September 11th attacks on the United States and the global economic slowdown.
Shorts manufactures large sections of the fuselage of Bombardier's range of regional jets, and also manufactures aircraft parts for Boeing, which also suffered in the downturn in aircraft orders.
Meanwhile Getty Communications announced today that it is proposing to close its plant at Carrickfergus at the end of the year because of a dramatic sales decline.
The company, which employs 135 people, makes cable, cable assemblies and general equipment wire.
A manufacturing facility in China is also to shut down with the loss of 156 jobs.
PA