Military contractor Sikorsky Aircraft, a division of United Technologies Corp , has canceled temporary layoffs that had been scheduled to start on Monday, due to the U.S. government shutdown, spokesman Paul Jackson said on Sunday.

The move, reported earlier by the Wall Street Journal, came in the wake of the decision by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to recall most of its own furloughed civilian workers.

Sikorsky, a large military contractor that makes Black Hawk and Seahawk helicopters and other aircraft for all five branches of the U.S. armed forces, had announced last week that it would lay off nearly 2,000 workers beginning Monday, and possibly as many as 5,000 if the shutdown continued into November.

Sikorsky's Jackson called Hagel's decision "a surprise," and termed the company's cancellation of furloughs "great news."

(Reporting by Sharon Begley; Editing by Maureen Bavdek)