Tech companies have revealed plans to jettison hundreds more Bay Area jobs in a disquieting indicator that the tech industry’s layoffs have yet to run their course, new official state government filings show.
The latest staffing reductions for the tech sector are slated to eliminate at least 289 more jobs in the Bay Area, according to several WARN letters filed with the state Employment Development Department.
Here are the details on the most recent layoffs affecting Bay Area workers that tech companies have revealed:
- Coherent, 196 job cuts in Fremont. The layoffs affect a Fremont location at 41762 Christy Street, a location where Coherent-owned subsidiary Finisar operates. Finisar makes optical communications components.
- Unity Technologies, 50 layoffs in San Francisco. Unity is a video game software developer.
- Flex, 43 staffing cutbacks in Milpitas. Flex is an electronics manufacturer.
The job cuts were all described by the respective companies as permanent in all three instances.
Including a filing in mid-March to alert the EDD of a prior round of job cuts, as well as the most recent disclosure of staffing reductions, Coherent has now revealed plans to eliminate 304 Bay Area jobs.
With the latest cutbacks, tech companies have disclosed plans to eliminate more than 25,200 jobs in the Bay Area over a 17-month stretch that includes all of 2022 and so far in 2023, this news organization’s review of the WARN notices shows.
Over the first five months and a few days of 2023, tech companies have revealed plans to eliminate more than 14,800 jobs in the Bay Area. During all of 2022, tech companies disclosed plans to eliminate 10,400 Bay Area positions.
During the first four months of 2023, tech companies have eliminated a net total of 16,500 jobs in the Bay Area, according to seasonally adjusted estimates that Beacon Economics culled from the official EDD monthly reports regarding the job markets in California and all of its metro regions.
Tech companies cut jobs in each of the four months, ranging from a low of 1,600 jobs cut in March to a high of 9,400 jobs eliminated in January, according to information from Beacon and the EDD.
Both Coherent and Flex stated that business needs have shifted, which resulted in a need for job cuts. Unity Technologies said its layoffs were the result of “circumstances” that weren’t specified.
Coherent executive Shirley Reha stated in the company’s WARN letter to the EDD that the company’s layoffs that were effective in mid-May, as well as the latest job cuts that are due to occur around July 11, were both the result of economic activity that’s faltered.
“That action was due to a fall in business demand, which prompted a restructuring with a focus on reducing costs,” Reha stated in the WARN letter to the EDD, referring to the layoffs in May. Reha added, “Coherent has determined that additional layoffs are required for the same reason as its original notice.”
