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Hundreds of workers employed across the Tri-Valley are among those who have been hit by ongoing waves of layoffs throughout the region and country as the job market grapples with numerous factors including economic uncertainty, supply chain issues and the rise of AI.
As of Tuesday, a total of 331 workers based at companies the Tri-Valley have already lost their jobs this year or will be in the coming weeks, according to data from the state’s Employment Development Department.Â
That includes 154 employees at Workday’s Pleasanton headquarters and 74 workers at DHL Supply Chain in Livermore as part of broader layoffs nationwide at both companies. Those cuts go into effect April 6 and March 20, respectively.
Quality assurance roles were the hardest hit by the Workday cuts, which eliminated 34 quality assurance engineer roles. Of those jobs, 18 were at the senior level and three were at the senior associate level. Eight management positions in that department were also eliminated, one of which was a senior role.
All in all, 35 manager positions across a range of departments were eliminated in the latest round of Workday layoffs, including eight senior management positions.
Customer service workers are the most heavily impacted by the DHL layoffs, which cut a total of 24 customer service representative jobs, 19 order filler pickers, and 11 operations supervisors from its 1201 Voyager St. location in Livermore.
The first Tri-Valley layoffs of the year, effective Jan. 9, were due to the closure of pharmaceutical company AbbVie’s three offices in the region. That impacted a total of 59 workers, most of whom were based at its Dublin office on 5996 Gleason Drive. The positions ranged from manufacturing technicians and operators, warehouse workers, analysts and engineers throughout the Chicago-based company’s local operations.
AbbVie’s exit from the Tri-Valley and the associated layoffs were announced late last year, with WARN notices filed with EDD on Nov. 10.
That same week, media outlets confirmed that the major pharmaceutical company was ending its partnership with Calico Life Sciences – an anti-aging research and development company founded by Google’s parent company Alphabet – and laying off approximately 100 employees associated with that collaboration.
As of Tuesday afternoon, a spokesperson for the company had not responded to a request for comment on whether the end of the Calico Life Sciences partnership was part of the reason for closing the local offices. AbbVie’s exit from the Tri-Valley leaves its South San Francisco location on Gateway Boulevard as its only remaining outpost in the state.
Meanwhile, the youth mental health and substance abuse treatment facility Newport Academy is finalizing its exit from the Tri-Valley in the coming months in a move that was confirmed by the company last year.
That means 30 workers at its Happy Valley Road location in Pleasanton and 16 at its Kilkare Road location in Sunol are set to have their jobs terminated effective April 24. Those positions consist primarily of special behavioral health roles, as well as four nurses, two primary therapists, and one teacher.
The latest cuts come on the heels of numerous high profile local layoffs last year, including nearly 2,000 jobs at Workday, two rounds of cuts at Chevron’s San Ramon offices amounting to more than 600 jobs, 93 jobs at Pleasanton-based 10x Genomics, 45 jobs at Oracle‘s Pleasanton office, and continued cuts to staff at Kaiser‘s Pleasanton offices.
Last year closed out with dozens more layoffs as Livermore-based Monarch Tractor axed 97 local jobs effective Nov. 19Â and closed its corporate office at 151 Lawrence Drive. amid a breach of contract lawsuit over its autonomous tractor technology and a major shakeup in the company as its seeks to transition to a SAAS operation while auctioning off its existing equipment.Â
An additional 23 jobs were axed in Livermore last year, with Kinetics Equipment Solutions closing its location at 6161 Industrial Way effective Dec. 26.
New state legislation means that as of Jan. 1, employers submitting WARN notices to the EDD are required to provide explanations for how they will support laid off workers, whether they plan to work with a local workforce board or another organization to coordinate services, and contact information with descriptions of services available to laid off workers.
Employers behind the local layoffs announced this year – Workday, DHL, and Newport Academy – all said in their WARN notices that they did not intend to partner with any local workforce agencies, but provided contact information for the Alameda County Workforce Development Board.
