More than a dozen Micron employees were laid off from the company’s Longmont office this week, according to workers who spoke on condition of anonymity to protect their jobs.
The computer memory chip maker announced in late December it would reduce its workforce by 10%, as the demand for chips drops.
Micron would not confirm to the Leader the number of employees laid off at its Longmont office, but said it has begun “notifying some of the employees impacted by Micron-initiated workforce reductions in the face of the severe downturn that is affecting the entire industry,” said company spokesperson Moira Whalen, in a statement.
“The decision to reduce our workforce was a difficult decision but necessary given business conditions and financial performance,” the statement read, in part. “We expect a mix of manufacturing and non-manufacturing roles across all job levels will be impacted globally.”
In addition to the layoffs, the Idaho-based company plans to reduce hiring, cut executive salaries, suspend bonuses companywide, reduce operating expenses and suspend share buybacks, Whalen said.
“We are acting quickly to reduce supply and control costs to address the rapidly changing business environment and will continue to assess if further actions are needed,’ her statement read. “In the short term, we are remaining flexible and cutting capex to ensure that we align supply with demand, and we (are) reducing expenses to support the health of our business. Longer-term, we continue to see strong underlying secular demand across markets and are sustaining investment in critical technologies and products.”
Most of Micron’s workforce reduction will occur before the end of February, the company said in a statement to the Leader in early February.
Micron’s Longmont office, at 1900 Pike Road, employs several hundred people. The company is also leasing part of a campus at 2452 Clover Basin Drive, which has been under construction. Micron said it plans to move its lab facilities to Clover Basin once complete, but retain its Pike Road location for the remainder of its lease, which runs through 2025.
The layoffs come as Micron uses federal CHIPS and Science Act tax credits to build a semiconductor plant in upstate New York, which is expected to create nearly 50,000 jobs there, Micron said in a news release. The company aims to invest up to $100 billion over two decades on the expansion, with the first $20 billion phase slated for completion by 2030. The construction is the largest private investment in New York state history, the company said.
Micron also plans to build a $15 billion semiconductor plant in Boise, Idaho.
As of December, Micron had around 49,000 employees worldwide, according to the company’s quarterly earnings report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company has chip manufacturing plants in Virginia, China, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia.
