American Techno-Politics

Sun to lay off 5000 employees

Layoffs seem to be common place in our new global economy. Sun Microsystems posted a $217 million loss in the most recent quarter. Ouch. Because of this, the company is restructuring and sending more tech workers to the unemployment line.

Hopefully not for too long - Bill Gates claims that he is unable to find American workers and that we need to raise the H-1b visa cap. Bill Gates - meet Sun. They have extra employees - call HR and make things happen.

I would imagine that many have transferable skills that they can apply at Microsoft - many IT skills are not vendor specific and even when they are the concepts are very similar. What are the odds that Microsoft will try to fill it's "shortage" with workers already in the country? I guess we'll see, but I'm not going to hold my breath.



Part of the article follows...

Sun Microsystems's will lay off between 4,000 and 5,000 staff in the next six month under a board-approved plan to return to profitability that, the company said Wednesday.

Sun, which has never fully recovered from the dot-com bust, has posted a string of losses or near break-even results over the past five years. For its most recent quarter, the company reported a loss of $217 million.

Sun said it will cut about 11 percent to 13 percent of its workforce, or about 4,000 to 5,000 employees, over the next six months. It will also sell off its campuses in Newark, New Jersey, and Sunnyvale, California, while retaining its operations in Menlo Park, California, and Santa Clara, California.

posted by R. Lawson @ 6:30 PM