Electronics component manufacturer Fairchild Semiconductor laid off 62 employees at its two Maine locations since the beginning of 2013, the company said Wednesday, continuing a trend of staff reductions that began three years ago.

Fairchild operates a manufacturing facility on Western Avenue in Portland, where 25 people lost jobs this year, and a business office on Running Hill Road in South Portland, where 37 were laid off. Currently, 342 employees work at the Portland location and 271 work at the business office, said Fairchild spokeswoman Dianna Fletcher. The laid-off employees were offered severance packages, Fletcher said.

Those figures are down from late 2010, when the first round of layoffs were announced at the company. At that time, roughly 500 people worked at the production plant and about 300 held jobs at the business office.

“The layoffs were due to the cyclical market demands of the industry,” Fletcher said in an email Wednesday, but did not elaborate.

The company makes tiny silicon chips used in a variety of industries, including cellular technology, home goods and automotive applications.

“Fairchild continually reacts to changes in those industries,” Fletcher said in the email. “Changes in the workforce reflect those market demands.”

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The 2010 reductions were billed as cost-saving measures, and were confined to Maine. In March 2011, four months after the layoffs were announced, Fairchild officially moved its business headquarters from South Portland to the technology-saturated city of San Jose.

Worldwide, the company employs about 9,000 people.

Staff Writer Matt Byrne can be reached at 791-6303 or at:

mbyrne@pressherald.com


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