GlobalFoundries, an international semiconductor company with a large chip factory in Essex Junction, told employees at a staff meeting Thursday morning that it would cut up to 800 jobs, or about 5.3 percent of the company’s global workforce of about 15,000 people, in December.
The company cited a shaky economy despite its expectation that 2022 will be a banner year for the company and its hope for chip subsidies from Uncle Sam.
“As part of a recent all-employee meeting, we shared the cost saving actions we are taking across our business in response to the current macroeconomic environment including reducing corporate and manufacturing overhead costs as well as selectively reducing our workforce by less than 800 employees globally before the end of the year,” GlobalFoundries said in a statement.
The job cuts will be primarily in non-manufacturing positions, with some at the executive level, according to GlobalFoundries CEO Tom Caulfield during the staff meeting. There is no geographical concentration of layoffs.
GlobalFoundries also reported a 22 percent increase in revenue to $2.1 billion, as well as a record net income of $336 million and an adjusted net income of $368 million.
The chipmaker is also cutting jobs as it receives a $30 million federal grant to develop next-generation gallium-nitride-on-silicon technology for a variety of applications such as 5G smartphones, RF wireless infrastructure, electric vehicles, and power grids.
The sources for this piece include an article in TheRegister.