Tech and life sciences companies have slashed hundreds more Bay Area jobs, affecting workers in the South Bay, East Bay and San Francisco, marking a fresh round of employment setbacks for the vital sectors.
Bio-Rad Laboratories, Corning Optical Communications, Zendesk and Exabeam are among the latest companies in the tech or life sciences sectors to disclose their decisions to chop jobs in the Bay Area.
The four companies have revealed their decisions to eliminate 305 jobs in the Bay Area, according to official notices on file with the state Employment Development Department.
Here are some of the details of the latest cutbacks that tech or life sciences firms have revealed to the state EDD:
— Bio-Rad Laboratories, a life sciences and tech company, disclosed 131 job cuts affecting workers in Hercules, Pleasanton and Richmond. Most of the cuts occurred at the Bio-Rad headquarters complex, where 113 jobs were lost. The staffing reductions were slated to occur on April 15.
— Corning Optical Communications, a provider of fiber-optics communications equipment, revealed 80 layoffs in Milpitas. The layoffs occurred on Feb. 20. The affected job site is being permanently closed.
— Zendesk, a software company, reported 51 staffing reductions in San Francisco. The cutbacks are scheduled for April 21.
— Exabeam, an information security firm, disclosed 43 layoffs in Foster City. The downsizing took place Feb. 4.
The job cuts were all described as permanent.
Ongoing tech, biotech and life sciences layoffs have hobbled the Bay Area’s ability to add jobs.
In 2024, the Bay Area added 7,600 jobs, which was only an increase of 0.2% from the totals of a year before in the region.
That was one of the weakest increases among urban centers statewide during 2024. The puny gain for the Bay Area job market also was far below the 1% increase for California last year, this news organization’s analysis of EDD figures shows.