Tech, biotech, non-tech layoffs jolt Bay Area with 900-plus job cuts

An array of companies that include tech and biotech firms will chop well over 900 Bay Area jobs, new disclosures show — yet the pace of tech layoffs has slowed in this region.

Three tech companies, several biotech and life science firms, an agricultural company, two restaurants and a transportation firm have all filed official notices of plans to lay off employees in the Bay Area.

The cutbacks were all described as permanent, according to WARN notices filed with the state Employment Development Department (EDD). In some cases, layoffs are being accompanied by a permanent shutdown of a company site.

The companies have decided to chop a combined 955 jobs in the Bay Area, the WARN letters filed with the state EDD show.

These are the companies involved in the latest round of Bay Area employment cutbacks, according to the official filings:

— Alstom Mass Transit, the manufacturer of rail cars that will be BART’s fleet of the future, is cutting 41 jobs in Pittsburg, effective Sept. 28. The layoffs are occurring at the same time Alstom is closing its site on Loveridge Road in Pittsburg.

— Point Digital Finance has decided to chop 61 jobs in Palo Alto, the company said. Point Digital provides a software platform to help people access home equity lines of credit. The cuts occurred on July 28 but were posted by the EDD on Aug. 31.

— Pizza Antica is cutting 43 jobs in Mill Valley in a shutdown of the restaurant. The layoff date is Sept. 22.

— CSL Vifor is cutting 85 jobs in Redwood City, effective Oct. 25, the specialized pharmaceuticals company said.

— Codexis, a biotech company, has decided to chop 59 jobs, divided between sites in Redwood City and San Carlos. The cuts are due to occur Sept. 30.

— Headway Technologies, a maker of data storage products, is cutting 88 jobs in Milpitas at several sites. The layoffs are scheduled for Sept. 22.

— Charles River Laboratories is cutting 55 jobs in South San Francisco as part of a permanent closure of a site. The pharmaceuticals company said the layoffs would occur Sept. 19.

— Accenture, an information technology firm, has decided to eliminate 240 jobs in Fremont. These layoffs are slated to transpire on Nov. 10. Accenture is also closing sites in Fremont.

— Vionic, a shoe company, is cutting six jobs in San Rafael, effective Sept. 17.

— FibroGen, which has failed in two trials for key drug treatments, is cutting 104 jobs in San Francisco around Sept. 15.

— Fish Market Restaurants is calling it quits and cutting 140 Bay Area jobs as it closes seafood spots in Palo Alto, San Mateo and South San Francisco. The cuts are slated for mid-September.

— Corteva Agriscience, an independent spinoff of the one-time agricultural unit of industrial titan DowDuPont, is laying off 31 workers in Pittsburg.

Despite the latest rounds of tech layoffs, the technology sector is slowing the pace of job cuts in a big way.

Over the first eight months of 2023, tech companies chopped slightly over 16,900 jobs in the Bay Area.

But the vast majority of these tech layoffs occurred during the first three months of this year, this news organization’s survey of the EDD WARN notices shows.

During the January-through-March first quarter, tech companies revealed plans to eliminate 10,154 jobs in the Bay Area.

But during the April-through-June second quarter, tech companies disclosed their decision to chop 5,239 jobs — a steep decline of 48.4%.

Over the first two months of the third quarter, July and August, tech companies revealed plans to eliminate 1,523 jobs, which would point to an even steeper decline for the quarter.

Some job cuts underscore how the fortunes of the tech sector slumped in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

In July 2020, after the virus had spread worldwide, Headway Technologies paid $31 million for a Milpitas building large enough to accommodate 800 workers. Now, the company is trimming its Milpitas workforce.

Alstom Mass Transit, which makes new BART rail cars, said “economic reasons” were the primary factor behind its job cuts and its permanent closure in Pittsburg, Shane Murray, an Alstom Mass Transit HR Operations Business Partner, said in the WARN notice to the EDD.

The final date of production at the Pittsburg site is Sept. 28.

“Increased costs due to inflation and the upheaval of the global supply chain has resulted in the decision by Alstom to consolidate and transfer all production from Pittsburg to Alstom’s Plattsburgh, New York site and cease all operations at the Pittsburg site,” Murray stated in the WARN letter.