BAE Systems in West Chester Twp. has pushed its first round of layoffs back until later this month as employees finish work on a contract, company officials said.

Shannon Booker, a spokeswoman for BAE, said the first round of job cuts would happen in mid-December — she did not give a more specific date — and would affect 40 people. A contract that was supposed to have finished in November was delayed causing the company to hold off on the move, according to BAE.

BAE Systems, an armored vehicle company, is moving its military operations from West Chester Twp. to Sealy, Texas, resulting in the elimination of approximately 160 jobs locally. The company filed a notice with the state workforce department saying it would do layoffs in rounds, which were expected to begin Nov. 30 and occur monthly until the end of March 2013.

About 100 current and former workers at BAE Systems attended a job fair Friday at Workforce One of Butler County in Fairfield held specifically for them. About 20 different employers from throughout the region participated, hoping to find workers with the skills they need.

The job fair took place the same day the U.S. Labor Department released its report saying the nation’s economy added 146,000 jobs in November and the unemployment rate fell to 7.7 percent, the lowest since December 2008. Economists say the unemployment rate dropped to a four-year low mainly because more people stopped looking for work and weren’t counted as unemployed.

Buford Dudley, 62, of Hamilton, doesn’t count himself among those who’ve given up on the hunt. Dudley will be laid off from BAE Systems, where he has worked for five years as a truck driver and material handling specialist, on Jan. 18. He said he was at the job fair hoping to find work that would keep him employed for at least three more years until he could retire.

“I’ve been working for a long time, so sitting at home is not my cup of tea,” Dudley said.

G&W Products Inc., a contract metal manufacturer in Fairfield, was among the companies at the fair looking for talent and experience, particularly in the areas of engineering, quality inspection, welding and laser and stamping manufacturing operations. Eric Davis, operations manager of G&W, said his company is hiring.

“We’re in a great position from business standpoint. We’re actually growing,” Davis said. “That’s why we’re here.”

BAE Systems has done a series of downsizings in recent years in response to lost contracts and reduced military spending. Most recently in September, BAE Systems said it would move its local military operations to Texas. The remaining commercial business is being negotiated in a sale to the O’Gara Group Inc., a Cincinnati-based company that opened a commercial armoring business this year in Fairfield.

Richard Chrisman, of Hamilton, was laid off from BAE in April of 2011 and hasn’t been able to find a steady job since. He worked at BAE more than seven years, most recently in quality inspection of bulletproof glass and armored vehicles.

“Basically, you have to get a job where you can,” Chrisman said. “But I don’t want to get a job that pays $9, $10 an hour, but you have to drive an hour away. Some of the jobs listed are way down in Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.