Northwest Layoff Update: Agilent, Attachmate, Intermec, and ON Semiconductor Slash Jobs

2009 is barely a week old, and already the Washington and Oregon tech industries have seen massive new layoffs in the struggling economy. A quick recap of the latest bloodletting (see the updated Xconomy Seattle layoff litany here):

—Agilent Technologies (NYSE: [[ticker:A]]) cut 120 jobs at its plant in Liberty Lake, WA. The Santa Clara, CA-based maker of instruments for electronics and life sciences companies has nearly 20,000 employees worldwide. The layoffs are effective January 30.

—Seattle-based software firm Attachmate has laid off 120 employees, or 10 percent of its staff, as reported by TechFlash. It is not clear yet how many jobs are being cut in Seattle. Attachmate is a Seattle-area icon that helps businesses manage and deliver IT services. It has some 65,000 customers, according to its website.

—Intermec (NYSE: [[ticker:IN]]), an Everett, WA-based maker of technologies for radio frequency identification and mobile computing, has laid off 7 percent of its global workforce, or about 150 people. The cuts are mostly in sales, general, and administrative areas.

—ON Semiconductor (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ONNN]]), which operates a 500-person chip manufacturing plant in Gresham, OR, is laying off 10 percent of its worldwide staff, or about 1,500 jobs. The Phoenix, AZ-based company is reportedly closing its Oregon plant for at least four weeks in the first half of this year.

Author: Gregory T. Huang

Greg is a veteran journalist who has covered a wide range of science, technology, and business. As former editor in chief, he overaw daily news, features, and events across Xconomy's national network. Before joining Xconomy, he was a features editor at New Scientist magazine, where he edited and wrote articles on physics, technology, and neuroscience. Previously he was senior writer at Technology Review, where he reported on emerging technologies, R&D, and advances in computing, robotics, and applied physics. His writing has also appeared in Wired, Nature, and The Atlantic Monthly’s website. He was named a New York Times professional fellow in 2003. Greg is the co-author of Guanxi (Simon & Schuster, 2006), about Microsoft in China and the global competition for talent and technology. Before becoming a journalist, he did research at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab. He has published 20 papers in scientific journals and conferences and spoken on innovation at Adobe, Amazon, eBay, Google, HP, Microsoft, Yahoo, and other organizations. He has a Master’s and Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, and a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.