Business digest

REGION

Incubator receives grant

YOUNGSTOWN — The Youngstown Business Incubator said it has been awarded a $350,000 grant by the Ohio Controlling Board to continue to provide Edison Technology Incubator services.

The grant comes from the Ohio Thomas Edison Program through the Ohio Department of Development’s Division of Technology and Innovation. It is used to provide services and resources for Incubator companies, an official said.

“Annually, we submit an application for the funding stating what we’ve accomplished and what we hope to do in the future. The grant is an integral part of our budget,” the official said.

NATION

Postal Service offers buyouts to employees

WASHINGTON — The Postal Service is offering $15,000 buyouts to employees in an effort to cut costs at a time when the post office is being buffeted by the recession and the popularity of e-mail and electronic bill payment.

Up to 30,000 employees could take the offer. The post office says it could save as much as $500 million in the next two years. The offer is open to those eligible for retirement and early retirement. It also includes employees in select positions, such as retail clerks, distributors and mail handlers who are willing to resign voluntarily.

Letter carriers are not eligible. The workers have to decide by Sept. 25.

The postal service expects to be $7 billion in the red by Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year.

Aerospace job losses

ORLANDO, Fla. — Less than two weeks after Northrop Grumman Corp. announced pending layoffs in Central Florida, a new study indicates aerospace-defense contractors nationwide have shed up to 30,000 jobs so far this year. The job cuts are projected to affect about 4.5 percent of the U.S. aerospace work force to date and could continue into 2010, according to the study by Aviation Week magazine and several industry groups.

From staff and wire reports