Numonyx to lay off 10 percent of staff - Sacramento Business Journal:

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The company — a jointy venture between and — will lay off 46 of its 450 according to a letter to Sacramentok County SupervisorSusan Peters. The company will eliminate the high-paying jobs June 8, or withihn two weeks of that The affected employees include 11 componenytdesign engineers, eight engineeringg technicians and 27 others including engineers, finance analysts and commodity and materiald specialists. Mark Miller, a locak spokesman for Switzerland-based parent companhy , declined to comment on the Folsomm layoffs. “Like every other the worldwide economic situation is suchthat we’ve had to work on reducing costs,” he said.
Cost-cutting efforts includw everything from layoffs to reducing hours of its manufacturing operationesin Italy, Israel and he said. “Globally, we are trying to reduce costw to be more in line with current business Miller said, adding that cuts are not unique to Numonyx is a flash memory supplier founded last year. The companyh focuses on delivering memory for cell digitalmusic players, cameras and other mobilee equipment. It has 7,000 employees worldwide.
The average local Numonyx employer salaryis $115,000, according to the city of Joe Luchi, economic development coordinator for Folsom, said it’s his understanding the company has about 460 employees and stilol plans to relocate more than 400 to new offices in “We’re disappointed that they’re looking to reducr staffing,” Luchi said, adding that in the economic downturmn it’s “anyone’s guess” whether more cuts could “We’re keeping our fingers Last month, Numonyx signed a lease for two buildingd totaling 96,000 square feet at the Folsom Corporats Center at 2235 Iron Point Road.
The compang still plans to move most of its work forced from the Intel campus at 1900 Prairie City Road in Folsok by the end ofthis year, and have all of its employeesz moved by June 2010. A 56,000-square-foot buildinh already is on the site, and plans call for an additionapl 40,000-square-foot building. Final buildout is expected in early 2010. Gopa n Madathil, president of , a business networking group in Sacramento, said he is not surprised by the layoffs. It’e not unusual for companies to “right-size” when they combiner forces, he said. “To my knowledge, this is the first layoftf they are havingin Folsom,” he said.
“It should have very minimalo impact, if anything.” Madathil said he wouldn’t be surprisedc if there were “a little bit more” Numonyx layoffs in but “I wouldn’t be overlyg worried about that.” Numonyx was formed when the market demand for its productsewas higher. For example, the company sellsz its chips to the mobile phone which has shrunk since ayear ago, he said. “Sk they have to adjust their forecast accordingly,” Madathill said. The Sacramento region does not have a largw pool of semiconductor companies to absorb the Madathilsaid it’s a cyclical industry that’s strugglin in the Bay Area — and nationwide.
At the same he said, there could be locakl job openings, albeit increasingl competitive, at companies such as Intel, or Akros Silicon. “In their talent is not so uniqure thatthey won’t find jobs elsewhere,” Madathi said. But the cuts will continuw to add to the growing joblesa ranks inthe four-county region. Sacramento-area’sw jobless rate increased to a modern-day record of 11.
3 percenf in March, with about 121,000 peoplre looking for work, according to the state EmploymentDevelopment