Agilent lays off 300 workers

<p>Agilent Technologies laid off 300 employees at its Santa Rosa division Wednesday — more than 20 percent of its work force — as the county’s largest tech employer attempts to ride out the worst downturn in its history.</p><p>The loss of high-wage tech jobs will be deeply felt in Sonoma County, where unemployment is approaching 10 percent, said Steve Cochrane, an analyst at Moody’s Economy.com, which tracks county business trends. </p><p>“It adds to the overall angst in the economy, particularly when it’s a big name like that,” Cochrane said.</p><p>Agilent employees had been awaiting the grim news for the past three weeks. In March, the Santa Clara-based company announced plans to eliminate 14 percent of its global work force, but it did not put numbers — or names — on the Sonoma County cuts until Wednesday.</p><p>“I’ve been a mess worrying about it for weeks,” said one Agilent employee who didn’t want to be quoted by name. “I’m sort of at peace now that I know I’m getting laid off.”</p><p>The layoffs occurred over the full range of Agilent jobs in Santa Rosa, including managers, engineers, marketing, human resources, finance, manufacturing and support, said Ron Nersesian, who heads Agilent’s Santa Rosa-based Electronic Measurement Group.</p><p>Most workers were notified Wednesday in individual meetings, although some managers were told Tuesday they were losing their jobs. Employees reacted professionally when they learned the news, Nersesian said.</p><p>“They understand the global economy and the position our customers are in,” he said. “I certainly know this will have an impact on the careers and lives of the employees affected.” </p><p>The company cut deepest into its management ranks, on a percentage basis, Nersesian said.</p><p>“We tried to maintain as much of our engineering talent as possible,” he said.</p><p>Wednesday’s layoffs were the largest at Agilent in Santa Rosa since 2005, when more than 300 employees were let go. Over the past eight years, the company has eliminated 5 out of 6 jobs at its Sonoma County operations as it slashed costs and moved manufacturing jobs to cheaper facilities overseas.</p><p>The layoffs will leave Agilent with 1,050 employees in Sonoma County, down from a peak of 6,000 regular and temporary workers in 2001.</p><p>Unlike past layoffs — when many of Agilent’s Santa Rosa manufacturing jobs were shifted overseas — Wednesday’s job cuts don’t involve offshoring, Nersesian said. The company’s Asian manufacturing facilities face “significant” reductions because of falling orders for Agilent’s products, he said. </p><p>Agilent and other technology makers are losing business as consumers cut back on spending for the latest electronic devices. This year’s revenue for the test and measurement business will be down 30 percent from 2008, the company said in March. </p><p>Overall, the Hewlett-Packard spinoff is cutting 2,700 jobs worldwide under the restructuring plan implemented Wednesday. The staffing cuts and other cost-cutting measures are expected to save the company $300 million over the next four quarters. </p><p>But it will also send ripples through the Sonoma County economy, according to local analysts.</p><p>Typical salaries for engineers at Agilent in Santa Rosa range from $69,000 to $89,000 a year, according to glassdoor.com, a Web site where employees post comments about their jobs. </p><p>Agilent’s high-wage jobs have a large “multiplier effect” in the Sonoma County economy, said Ben Stone, director of the county’s Economic Development Board.</p><p>“A dollar from Agilent will circulate two or three times,” he said. </p><p>“This could force other local businesses to tighten up,” said Robert Eyler, an economics professor at Sonoma State University and director of the school’s Center for Regional Economic Analysis. </p><p>Agilent tried to preserve its core work force for months by taking other steps to cut costs. It furloughed employees for two weeks in December and cut salaries 10 percent in January. It froze hiring and eliminated most temporary jobs.</p><p>But sales fell faster than the company anticipated in January, when it first warned Wall Street that it might have to lay off 10 percent of its workers if revenues continued to drop.</p><p>The laid-off employees will leave between the end of next week and the end of April in 2010, although most will be gone in the next six months, Nersesian said. Many will get nine months’ pay after they leave as part of a severance package, he said. </p><p>While some employees felt a sense of relief Wednesday after weeks of uncertainty, the mood was still grim at Agilent’s campus in Fountaingrove.</p><p>“The place seemed pretty empty and sad. Most of the people I talked to were pretty upset. I think we’re just tired of the downward spiral at Agilent,” the Agilent employee said.</p>