Tech giant to shutter six California plants, announces 1,400 layoffs

St. Petersburg-based technology component manufacturer Jabil Inc., one of the largest companies in the Tampa Bay region with some $33 billion in annual revenue, is laying off 1,364 California employees and closing six plants for the final week to 10 days of the year. News of the temporary job cuts comes from letters the publicly traded company sent to the Golden State’s Employment Development Department in late October.

The layoffs and plant closings will mostly begin in the days before Christmas and last through the first week of 2023, records show. The state’s WARN database shows 549 employees will be let go at a plant in Fremont, 484 in San Jose, 123 in Livemore, 83 in Manteca, 73 in Irvine and 52 in Benicia.

In the six letters, the company does not give a reason for laying off employees for just one week or why it’s closing the plants, simply writing that they were written “based on the best information available to the company at this time.”

The letters also don’t specify if all the employees will be brought back when the plants reopen.

Multiple Jabil officials did not respond to several email and phone call requests for comment — both to its public relations and investor relations departments — since Friday, Nov. 4. The only communication was an out-of-office notice sent Monday, Nov. 7, from the company’s director of enterprise content and media, Timur Ayden.

The layoffs appear on California’s WARN database and the letters, submitted to the state to meet federal Worker Adjustment Retraining and Notification notice requirements were provided to the Business Observer by the state’s Employment Development Department.

The letters to officials in California were written and the layoffs were posted to the state database between Oct. 20 and Oct. 25.

The start of the layoffs and closings differ from one Jabil location to the other with a plant in San Jose closing Dec. 26 and one in Irvine closing Dec. 23. The plant in Manteca closes Christmas Day and reopens New Year’s Day.

Jabil, which has global operations in 30 countries, designs and manufactures components for a wide range of industries, including health care, automotive, aerospace, consumer electronics and telecommunications. In September it reported net revenue of $9 billion in the fourth quarter, up 12% from last year’s $7.4 billion. It posted $33.47 billion in revenue in 2021. 

Just last week, the company announced Kenny Wilson will replace Mark Mondello as CEO in May. Mondello will remain as company chair after the handover.