It's never easy to learn that you are going to lose your job, even when the possible layoff announcement is made months in advance. Richard Millett had worked in safety engineering at Alliant Techsystems for nearly 25 years, when he was told Tuesday that his job would be among those that are being cut.

The 53-year-old married father of three said he worries not only for himself and his own family, but also for those remaining employees whose livelihoods lie with a company whose future is so uncertain, given the tenuous economic times.

"I knew the layoffs were coming," he told the Deseret News after the company said 550 Utahns were told they are being laid off, effective immediately. "I just didn't know I would be one of them."

Millett, a West Valley City resident who worked on the Minuteman missile project at ATK's Magna operation, said it wouldn't surprise him to see even more jobs lost in the coming months. He estimated that several hundred more people could receive pink slips by next year as more spending cuts are announced by the federal government.

ATK announced Tuesday that 550 Utah employees were notified that they were being laid off, with most of the cuts coming from the company's three Space Systems Group locations in Clearfield, Promontory and Magna.

The Minnesota-based company said in July that it would eliminate several hundred jobs from its Utah work force.

The layoffs are a result of NASA's discontinuation of the space shuttle and Minuteman missile programs, ATK spokesman George Torres told the Deseret News.

"When you do something like this, the No. 1 thing you think about is the employees and their families," he said.

In July, ATK estimated that 10 percent of the company's 4,500 Utah workers would be cut, but that number increased slightly to just over 12 percent, Torres said.

He said affected employees will receive a severance package that includes separation pay of up to 26 weeks based on years of service. Health-care benefits will be continued through the end of November, an ATK news release said.

Employees also will receive job-placement assistance that includes a career fair on Oct. 21 that will feature representatives from more than a dozen companies in the area that are hiring, the news release said.