A Medical Company Now Warns of Unexpected Layoffs in California

May 15, 2024

A medical company now warns of unexpected layoffs in California amid an ongoing industry slump, per several reports.

Pacific Biosciences said last week that it will lay off about 195 employees, or nearly 25% of its workforce, as part of a plan to reduce operating expenses.

Among those affected in the workforce reduction are 71 employees in Menlo Park, California, where the company is based, and 108 employees at a facility in San Diego that is slated for closure, according to Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification letters filed with the state’s Employment Development Department.

Both actions are effective June 28.

Pacific Biosciences, which sells gene sequencing equipment, announced the layoffs on Thursday along with its first-quarter results, reporting a net loss of $78.2 million and flat revenue growth.

The company’s results were hurt by weaker-than-expected instrument placements and soft consumables utilization, Kyle Mikson, an analyst at Canaccord Genuity, wrote in a Friday note to investors.

Mikson believes the company can re-accelerate revenue growth and reduce its cash burn.

The job cuts come amid an industry-wide slowdown in laboratory equipment purchasing.

The reductions affect nearly all functions within the company, Pacific Biosciences executives said on an earnings call.

Some consumables manufacturing for reagents and flow cells was consolidated from San Diego to Menlo Park during the quarter to lower production costs.

Business directors and managers, engineers, scientists and IT professionals were among the positions impacted, according to the letters filed with the state.

Several employees in the San Diego office are receiving relocation offers to the Menlo Park office, where the company plans to consolidate much of its research and development work, Pacific Biosciences spokesperson Todd Friedman said in an email.

The remaining affected employees work remotely across the U.S. and the globe, Friedman added.

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Also Read: An Unexpected Retailer Is Now Closing All Stores in Illinois

Other Economy News Today

A whopping 3,000 retail stores will now close this year after popular clothing brands Rue21 and and Express announced their closures.

The list now grows to approximately 3,100 stores shutting down by the end of this year, per The-Sun.

And this number figure is expected to grow as more businesses announce closures throughout the remainder of the year.

Rue 21 recently announced bankruptcy and a plan to close all 540 remaining stores across the US in the next six weeks.

Express also announced plans on closing over 100 stores across the US in addition to a store closure in Central New York.

If the rising rate of retailers closing down stores continues, an estimated 8,000 locations will be closed by the end of the year.

That many closures would be 40% more than the US saw last year.

In 2023, over 4,000 retailers shut down stores, which was twice the amount of store closures from 2022, according to the National Retail Federation.

2023 also saw the closing of hundreds of Bed, Bath and Beyond stores after the major retailer filed for bankruptcy.

The retailer cited inflation as the primary reason for shutting down its in person stores, moving to an online only format.

The inflation rates from January 2023 to January 2024 increased by 3.1%, with food prices rising by 2.6%, as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In response to the rising rate of inflation, many stores are raising prices or risk closing.

One Canadian supermarket, Loblaws, raised its food prices so dramatically that customers are staging a boycott for the whole month of May.

The Dollar Tree, a retailer known for everything in its stores being $1 or less, announced that it will be raising prices on certain items to as high as $7.

“This year, across 3,000 stores, we expect to expand our multi-price assortment by over 300 items at price points ranging from $1.50 to $7,” the company’s CEO, Rick Dreiling, said during an earnings call.

The last time the discount chain announced a price hike was in 2021 when prices on select items went from $1 to $1.25.

Aside from raising its prices, Dreiling also announced that over 1000 stores will most likely be closing in 2024.

Other major retailers such as Walgreens, Walmart, and JCPenney announced major closures this year.

Walmart announced store closures in California, Ohio, and Maryland–totaling to six closures so far this year.

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Also Read: Retirees Will Now Receive More Money For Social Security

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