An Unexpected Company is Now Slashing Jobs in California

June 12, 2024

An unexpected company is now slashing jobs in California according to a WARN notice filed with the state Employment Development Department.

Agilent Technologies, a leading provider of laboratory equipment, has announced significant job cuts across the state.

The company filed a WARN notice with California authorities on Friday, revealing plans to lay off a total of 184 workers in various locations.

According to a WARN notice filed with the California Employment Development Department, the deepest cuts will be felt at Agilent’s Santa Clara headquarters, where a total of 156 positions will be eliminated.

The layoffs will also impact the company’s operations in La Jolla, with 11 job losses, as well as smaller reductions in Carpinteria (7 positions), San Diego (6 positions), and Folsom (4 positions).

Last December, Agilent announced 400 layoffs, as well as some office closures.

Recently, California-based electric vehicle manufacturer, Lucid Group, unveiled a significant restructuring plan that will result in the reduction of its workforce by approximately 400 employees.

This figure represents about 6% of the company’s total personnel, according to Street Insider.

Lucid said it intends to optimize the Company’s operating expenses in response to evolving business needs and productivity improvements through a reduction of the Company’s current employee workforce.

The Company expects to substantially complete the Plan by the end of the third quarter of 2024, subject to local law and consultation requirements.

Walmart also recently notified state employment officials in both Texas and California that a total of over 2,000 people in those states could be let go as part of previously announced corporate job cuts, though the company anticipates the number to land in the hundreds.

The notices come after Walmart last week confirmed corporate layoffs, with Chief People Officer Donna Morris saying in a May 14 memo that business changes “will result in a reduction of several hundred campus roles”.

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Other Economy News Today

Applications for unemployment benefits now surge to new highs, a sign that the white-hot labor market is starting to cool off.

First-time applications for unemployment benefits rose last week to 231,000, the highest level since August, per CNN.

Thursday’s data also showed that the number of continuing claims, or applications from people who have filed for unemployment for at least one week, was 1.78 million.

That’s an increase of 17,000 from the prior week, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The latest numbers come less than a week after the monthly jobs report showed the US economy added just 175,000 positions in April, less than economists expected and a steep drop-off from prior months.

US employers have now added an average of 245,500 jobs per month, versus 2023’s 251,000-per-month average.

Still, hiring remains strong. Although the unemployment rate ticked up to 3.9% last month, it’s the 27th consecutive month that the jobless rate has held under 4%, matching a streak last seen in the late 1960s.

Weekly jobless claims data tends to be volatile but, while one week’s worth of data “does not a trend make,” said Chris Rupkey, chief economist at Fwdbonds.

“We can no longer be sure that calm seas lie ahead for the US economy if today’s weekly jobless claims are any indication.”

“Company layoffs are picking up, hinting at caution on the part of companies as they weigh the outlook for the second half of the year,” he wrote in a note Thursday.

The Federal Reserve has been battling inflation by raising its key lending rate in the hopes of slowing the economy.

While the labor market has so far resisted those efforts, remaining white hot for the past 18 months despite 11 rate hikes from the central bank, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said last week that demand has “cooled from its extremely high level of a couple of years ago.”

Ian Shepherdson at Pantheon Economics said in a note Thursday: “We’d need to see at least a month of elevated readings to convince us that the trend really has turned.”

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Also Read: A Giant Company Now Announces Unexpected Layoffs in Virginia

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