Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. told the state labor department it will cut 51 call center jobs at its Norwalk office, adding to the growing number of cost cuttings and closings sweeping across the state.

In an e-mail, Jim Mezoff, the airline's vice president of marketing, said the move is "part of on-going global operations reviews to best serve customer needs."

The company will have its United Kingdom call center handle the function of its U.S. call center operations. " this was a difficult decision to make, and we are making every effort to care for affected staff, including some reassignments to the U.K., some reallocations within the U.S. operation where appropriate, and career outplacement services when necessary," Mezoff said.

Virgin's move mirrors those of other companies trying to make it through a turbulent economy where fuel and other core expenses continue to rise and drive up costs.

In April, Virgin was one of four companies that filed notices with the labor department that said, in total, 221 people would lose their jobs. This is more than double April 2007, when four companies cuts 78 Connecticut jobs.

On May 1, Quebecor World Inc. said it was closing its North Haven printing plant by the end of June, leaving 308 without jobs.

In its press release, Montreal-based Quebecor said closing the Connecticut plant is part of a three-year retooling program "designed to reduce costs and improve productivity across the company's global platform by

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consolidating volume in larger and more efficient facilities."

And Watson Laboratories Inc. confirmed a February announcement that it would close its Danbury facility.

The notice California-based Watson, which makes generic pharmaceuticals, filed with the labor department on April 23 said 64 jobs will be lost while it shuts down three facilities in the region during the next two years.

It is also closing its facilities in Brewster and Carmel, N.Y.; according to its Web site, the Danbury facility was supporting those New York operations. Together, the three operations employ more than 750 people.

There was some confusion over the future of the Danbury site because the state labor department believed Watson would keep the research workers in Danbury, but Patty Eisenhaur, a Watson spokesperson, said Danbury will be closed.

She said the 64 includes a few from New York; there are about 60 Watson workers in Danbury.

John Tirinzonie, a state labor department economist, said these losses cut across several industries and include high-paying research jobs.

In addition to Watson and Virgin, Branford-based Neurogen Corp. and Pitney Bowes Inc. announced reductions in April. Neurogen is cutting 40 jobs and Pitney Bowes is closing its Newtown facility, putting 67 people out of work.

The reasons for the cuts vary, Tirinzonie said, but they follow strategies from past downturns. A place like Neurogen, which develops new drugs, needs contracts to fund its research and didn't get enough, he said. So that appears to be a clear-cut case of having to reduce staff for lack of work, he said.

But other cases are profit driven, according to Tirinzonie. They are cases where a company sees declining profits, or even losses, and looks for ways to trim excess capacity and improve efficiency, he said.

"Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't," Tirinzonie said.

Companies can actually hurt their individual recoveries during economic downturns by cutting jobs, he said, because those people were helping the company maintain its market share.

He cited an example from Dell, which moved its call center overseas, but had to bring it back to America when consumers began to defect to other brands because service dropped off.

But reducing staff can also protect the company and allow it to recover and then rehire those who lost their jobs, the economist said.

Rob Varnon, who covers business, can be reached at 330-6216.