100 Agilent employees lose jobs next week
pressdemocrat.com
Layoff notices result of previously announced plan to cut 250 workers
October 22, 2002
By ERIN ALLDAY
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
As Agilent Technologies continues its latest round of layoffs in Sonoma County, about 100 employees were told on Friday and Monday that they will lose their jobs by the end of the month.
The employees, most of whom work in Agilent's order fulfillment and product development organizations, are part of the 230 layoffs that the company announced two weeks ago. Agilent also cut 70 jobs at its airport facility in Santa Rosa last month.
"What happened Friday and Monday is a group of employees found out whether they will or will not be leaving the company," said Agilent spokesman Jeff Weber. "It's been an ongoing process that's taking its course."
Agilent, Sonoma County's largest private employer, already has slashed nearly 40 percent of its local work force since last October, when the company announced its first round of job cuts. Since then, 1,350 employees, plus at least 700 temporary workers, have lost jobs. By next month Agilent will have about 3,600 employees in Santa Rosa and Rohnert Park.
Unlike the first cutbacks a year ago that affected mostly manufacturing jobs, the most recent layoffs are striking across nearly all departments and at all levels of employment, including engineers and managers.
All of the most recent cuts will be complete by the end of this month, at the conclusion of the fiscal fourth quarter. Agilent has not yet announced how many job cuts it is making company-wide, but it expects to save about $200 million a year with the layoffs. As of last month, the Palo Alto-based company had about 37,000 employees worldwide.
Agilent managers have said that the company likely will never climb back to its peak employment years in Sonoma County during the Telecom Valley boom a few years ago.
By 1999, Agilent had ballooned to nearly 6,000 employees in Santa Rosa and Rohnert Park, and the company had constructed a new four-building campus near the airport. Agilent has since announced that it will abandon the airport facility by the end of the year and move 330 employees to its remaining operations.
You can reach Staff Writer Erin Allday at 521-5494 or eallday@pressdemocrat.com. |
