The Electric Boat Company

Another 170 Electric Boat employees received lay off notices this week, bringing the total number workers to be let go this year to nearly 800.

The latest round of jobs cuts affects shipyard workers, 154 hourly employees and 16 salaried workers. They were notified Monday that their last day will be Oct. 27. This was the third layoff notice this year.

Last week, EB President John Casey said fewer workers will likely be let go this year than originally projected because of increased maintenance work, retirements and resignations. The company originally said as many as 2,400 jobs could be affected in 2006, but Casey scaled that number back to between 1,400 and 1,700 last week. The new layoffs announced Monday, combined with two previous layoff notices and nearly 600 individual workers leaving through attrition would place the total now at just under the 1,400 mark.

EB spokesman Robert Hamilton, however, declined to say if Monday’s layoffs would be the last this year.

“It really is a moving target,” Hamilton said. “We’ve said all along that we need to constantly evaluate what the needs are and we’re just not in a position to say whether this will or will not be the last one.”

Metal Trades Council President Ken DelaCruz could not be reached for comment Wednesday. All of the new layoffs are from that union, as are the majority of the 440 workers who received layoff notices in July. Designers and engineers, members of the Marine Draftsmen’s Association, made up the majority of the initial wave of 170 layoffs announced in March.

But Casey said last Thursday that he foresees no further job losses among designers and engineers, and some of the 440 who received layoff notices in July - due to separate on Sept. 8 - will be kept on for several weeks longer.

All the affected workers are being assisted in finding new positions through the Eastern Connecticut Workforce Investment Board. A special job placement office was established in Shaw’s Cove earlier this year, providing a variety of services to assist workers.