GlobalFoundries, the multinational company that owns a giant semiconductor plant in Essex Junction, Vt., sent a memo last week to employees around the world warning that it intends to reduce its workforce.
VtDigger has not seen the memo, but GlobalFoundries spokesperson Gina DeRossi confirmed its contents.
“Based on the current microeconomic environment, we are taking a very disciplined, proactive approach to contain costs and like many in our industry and across the technology sector, we, too, are initiating a hiring freeze and taking a set of focused actions to selectively reduce our workforce,” DeRossi said in an email to VtDigger.
DRossi cited “rapidly developing uncertainties in the global economy,” including inflation, elevated energy costs and rapid interest rate increases. She said the company would not disclose any additional details at this time.
It is not clear if any of the more than 2,000 employees who work at the Essex Junction plant would be affected.
The company is the largest private employer in Vermont, according to the Essex Junction plant’s general manager, Ken McAvey. It also has factories in New York, Germany and Singapore.
GlobalFoundries recently secured $30 million in federal funding to accelerate development in Essex Junction of semiconductors that would allow devices to connect more quickly to the internet and power electric vehicles.
Last week, before warning employees of job cuts, GlobalFoundries announced that it would cut costs by $100 million next year and another $100 million after that in anticipation of a global decline in demand for semiconductors as the world economy slows down.
The Vermont Public Utility Commission recently granted GlobalFoundries permission to set up its own electric utility that would sell power directly to the Essex Junction plant as the company seeks to cut energy costs.