Late last week, The Torrington Company (Torrington, Connecticut; a division of Ingersoll-Rand) cut 180 more jobs, including 60 salary positions, across its various bearing and component manufacturing operations. Torrington manufactures bearings under the Torrington, Fafnir and Kilian brand names.

Torrington currently employs 10,000 people in 20 manufacturing plants and 50 offices around the world. Founded in Torrington in 1866, the company still maintains its corporate offices there, with a staff of over 1,000 people.

So far this year, Torrington has been forced to cut 470 jobs, 290 of which came during a round of layoffs earlier in the year.

Torrington began to feel the effects of the slumping auto industry last fall, cutting back on production schedules, eliminating overtime and asking for voluntary layoffs. So far this year, automotive bearing sales are off more than 25% from last year's levels.

In making the layoff announcement last Wednesday, Torrington's President Allen Nixon said, "Unfortunately, our expected results for March and beyond are showing that previous cutbacks were not enough to balance our cost structure. It is clear that we can no longer postpone taking additional steps that are absolutely critical to protect our business in the face of severe economic conditions. Controlling all our costs continues to be an absolute priority."