Layoffs resume at Hewlett-Packard in Boise

Hewlett-Packard began issuing layoff notices Monday that could mean "hundreds" of lost jobs among Imaging & Printing Group workers at the company's Boise campus, according to sources who requested anonymity.

A software engineer who got the bad news Monday said company employees believe up to 25 percent of HP Imaging and Printing employees worldwide could lose their jobs, though the number in Boise is unknown. HP employs an estimated 3,400 workers at its campus on Chinden Boulevard, between Five Mile and Cloverdale roads.

HP's layoffs come amid fears of more layoffs at the Treasure Valley's other big technology employer: Micron Technology. Micron's failure to start construction on a previously announced fabrication plant has raised concerns that the company may be planning to reduce the manufacturing in Boise of memory chips on older, 8-inch wafers.

Neither HP nor Micron has said much. HP said only that "parts of IPG's business will experience reductions," and Micron hasn't commented.

"It just doesn't end, does it?" Boise economist John Church said. "The slowdown in the U.S. economy has caught up with Idaho and especially with Boise lately."

The laid-off HP engineer said furloughed workers will receive five weeks of pay and benefits, during which time they will train other workers to pick up some of their duties. The laid-off workers will be able to look for other jobs inside HP. If they don't find jobs, HP will provide an additional four weeks of pay and benefits, though the employees will have little to do and will not be required to be on site.

"As long as you don't go to work for a direct competitor, they don't care," said the engineer, who asked not to be identified citing possible reprisals for HP employees who talk to reporters.

Clayton Cramer, an HP research and development engineer who lives in Horseshoe Bend and is among those being laid off, wrote on his blog that he is applying within HP for jobs in Boise and elsewhere.

"In the meantime, I am sending my resume around," Cramer wrote. "There are a few jobs here in Boise (and gobs of competition from other soon to be ex-HP employees)."

In an e-mail to the Idaho Statesman, the wife of another HP employee wrote Monday that workers believe the layoffs will reach "20 percent here in Boise, but 50 percent company-wide in the IPG division. The employees met with their new supervisors this morning and were told whether or not they had a position within the new organizational structure."

A 20 percent reduction among 3,400 Boise workers would amount to almost 700 lost jobs.

Companies that lay off more than 500 workers are required to notify state officials under federal law unless the workers receive at least 60 days' notice or 60 days' pay. HP's nine-week layoff plan would pay workers for 63 days before they lose their jobs. The Idaho Labor Department said it had received no word from HP.

An HP spokeswoman could not provide the total number of Imaging and Printing employees worldwide. Before its March 2005 layoffs, HP said it had 151,000 Imaging and Printing Group workers in the U.S. and Puerto Rico.

After the nine-week period, laid-off workers will receive severance packages. However, the amount each worker receives will be reduced by the initial five weeks of pay, the engineer said.

HP remained tight-lipped on how many workers would be let go, restricting its comments to a statement in which it said:

"As part of the HP Imaging and Printing Group's (IPG) continued Print 2.0 transformation, the business announced plans in June 2008 to realign and streamline its organization by reducing the number of its global business units from five to three customer solutions-oriented businesses. The realignment of IPG's business entails shifting resources from slower-growing businesses to new business opportunities. In some cases, parts of IPG's business will experience reductions while investments will be made in high-growth segments of the business. These decisions will be made at the level of the global business unit and are not specific to HP sites. Consistent with its transformation, IPG will continue to proactively manage the challenges of the current market and consider changes that will position the business to win today and in the future."

The early signs of layoffs in Boise began in July when it was learned that 30 HP employees had been informed at the end of May that they would lose their jobs on Aug. 22.

For furloughed HP workers to find jobs with smaller high-tech outfits in the area will be problematic.

Bradley Wiskirchen, CEO of Keynetics Inc., Idaho's largest privately held high-tech company based on revenues, said he has an opening for just one software developer.

Courty Gates, CEO of Clearwater Analytics, a local Web-based provider of investment portfolio reports, said he had jobs for five software developers immediately, and one a month for the next 12 months.

The impact of hundreds of lost jobs will be felt throughout the economy, with already financially strapped consumers cutting back even further on spending, and retailers refusing to add payroll heading into the Christmas holiday shopping season, Church said.

Moreover, the potential for hundreds of homes suddenly finding their way onto a glutted housing market would "push recovery way out," he said.

Mike Pennington, a residential specialist with John L. Scott Real Estate, said the market could absorb the shock if many of the HP workers find other jobs in the Valley or are nearing retirement age.

"This isn't as bad as it could be," Pennington said. "But if you have another big Micron layoff, that would be devastating to the (housing) market."

Micron has laid off about 1,100 workers in the last year.

Meanwhile, news of HP layoffs is surfacing elsewhere.

The Corvallis (Ore.) Gazette-Times, reported last week that managers planned to shut down one of three silicon wafer fabrication facilities at HP's local Corvallis site and that up to 45 percent of the 850 employees who work in the fabs were to be laid off. That would amount to as many as 300 lost jobs, the Gazette-Times reported.

Joe Estrella: 377-6465