GE is expected to lay off about 1,400 employees.

General Electric will trim its 12,000 employee work force in Lynn, Mass., later this year, with about 1,000 of the layoffs due to increased competition and reduced demand for the jet fighter engines it makes, a spokesman said. The Boston-based firm expects 700 to 800 hourly employees and several hundred salaried employees in the aircraft division to be laid off, as well as 500 to 600 employees in the non-defense business. About 8,400 of the Lynn employees work on defense contracts.