Caterpillar Cuts 2,500 Idled Workers

PEORIA, Ill. (TheStreet) -- Caterpillar(CAT) announced Monday that 2,500 of the approximately 22,000 workers it has laid off since the recession began will be permanently "separated from the company."

It didn't say what divisions or what geographies would be effected by the move.

At the same time, the heavy-equipment bellwether, which reported steep third-quarter declines in profit and revenue last week, said that it planned to put 550 laid-off U.S. employees back to work before the end of 2010. The group will include support, management and production employees, Caterpillar said.

The simultaneous cuts and additions are meant, of course, to boost the headcounts at segments experiencing increased demand and reduce staff at units the company believes will struggle over the long term. Recently, Caterpillar's engines division has been the class of the entire operation. While the machinery segment has lost money, its sibling, which manufactures turbines and generators as well as engines for all kinds of heavy equipment, has posted profits.

The bad news/good news mix continues a theme that Caterpillar has been hitting for the better part of a year. When it reported its quarterly results last week, the company also essentially proclaimed its belief that business would begin recovering in 2010. It expects sales and revenue to be 10% to 25% higher next year compared with the nadir it reached in the middle of 2009.