Qualcomm shaved 79 jobs from its San Diego headquarters last month as the mobile chip firm seeks to control expenses amid a slowdown in smartphone sales.
The San Diego company filed Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act paperwork with the state of California and local employment officials giving advanced notice of the job cuts. The layoffs take effect in April. The move comes on top of the 153 employees that Qualcomm let go in December. Even so, the company continues to be San Diego’s largest technology firm with more than 12,000 local employees.The company declined to comment. But in its latest earnings conference call in February, Chief Executive Cristiano Amon said Qualcomm expected to reduce operating expenses by 5 percent amid the global economic slowdown and bloated inventories at smartphone markers.
“Given the current macroeconomic and demand environment, we’re implementing further spending reductions and streamlining operations without losing sight of the significant growth and diversification opportunities ahead,” said Amon. “This is consistent with our commitment to actively manage operating expenses as indicated during our last earnings call.”
This latest round of job cuts impacted positions across the board but most heavily concentrated in staff engineers, administration and legal, according to the WARN notice.