As we reported on Feb. 2, Motorola planned on laying off up to 4,000 of 34,000 employees from its semiconductor division. Now the company is taking the next step in a series of cost-cutting measures by ordering non-manufacturing employees in its semiconductor division to take one week of vacation time this month and another week in the second quarter, according to an EDTN Network article.
The division, which generates about 20 percent of the Schaumburg, Ill. company’s revenue, has about 30,000 employees worldwide, with about 17,000 in the U.S. All non-manufacturing personnel — about 8,000 in the U.S. — are on the mandated schedule, according to EDTN. Manufacturing (employees) are on a different schedule and, while it will depend on the individual factory or line, they, too, will be getting some time off, the story added.
Motorola began cutting its company-wide 140,000 personnel count in December and since then has announced a reduction of about 9,000 jobs. On Feb. 23, the company also announced it wouldn’t achieve first quarter sales projections due to a slowing U.S. economy and worldwide inventory corrections.
There’s still no word on what effects, if any, the cuts will have on the Power PC processor Motorola develops and manufacturers and is primarily used in Mac systems. (Thanks to MacCentral reader, Ron Carlson, for the heads-up on this story.)