Caterpillar offers retirement to 2,000 workers

Caterpillar Inc. said it would offer a voluntary retirement package to about 2,000 production employees in Illinois and other states.

The plan announced today is in addition to more than 22,000 workers and contractors that Caterpillar already said it is laying off or dismissing, and more job cuts may be required, the Peoria-based company said in a statement.

Caterpillar last month said it expects sales to fall about 22 percent this year to $40 billion as a global recession and credit crisis sap demand for construction equipment. Chief Executive Officer Jim Owens has said the company may post a loss this quarter, its first in 16 years.

The package is being offered to about 2,000 production employees in the Illinois cities of Aurora, Decatur, Joliet, Pontiac and the Peoria-area. Some workers also will receive the package in Denver; Memphis, Tennessee; and York, Pennsylvania.

The job cuts that Caterpillar announced Jan. 26 included 12,000 employees, or 11 percent of the workforce, and 8,000 contractors. Four days later it said it would place another 2,100 factory workers in Illinois on “permanent layoff,” meaning they would be out of work at least six months. Caterpillar had 112,887 employees at the end of 2008.