Orange County Register

Irvine is like the Willie Sutton of Orange County's major layoffs: It leads the county in cuts because that's where the big companies and jobs are.

(Sutton, a prolific bank robber, reportedly said he robbed banks "because that's where the money is.")

Irvine has lost 3,931 jobs due to major layoffs this year to date, based on notices filed with the state and independent reporting by the Orange County Register. (A major layoff is anytime a company cuts 50 or more employees at one time, which, by law, is supposed to be reported to the state.)

Santa Ana ranks a distant second with 1,288 job losses due to major layoffs and third-place Newport Beach is even farther behind with 715.

Ken Brown, Irvine's strategic business plan administrator, notes the city has the largest number of employers in the county and the largest number of employees even though it only has about 7% of Orange County's population.

"If a city is big, you can expect the layoffs to be bigger," says Chapman University economist Esmael Adibi.

Irvine had 6,515 establishments with 151,868 employees, according to the 2002 Economic Census, the most recent breakdown for companies and employment by city. Santa Ana was second in total establishments — 6,113 — while Anaheim ranked second in total employees (128,075). (The chart below is courtesy of Adibi and his staff.)

Irvine also had the unique misfortune of being ground zero for the mortgage industry, which has been disproportionately hit by layoffs.

Irvine Regional Hospital and Medical Center also closed down this year, which accounted for 510 jobs. Newport Beach-based Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian is renovating the facility and is expected to reopen it in August 2010. Brown says the new hospital will create even more jobs than were cut — an estimated 800 to 1,000.

The 500 layoffs in Irvine announced by Veolia Transportation Services also may only be cuts on paper. A Veolia spokeswoman said the workers were laid off but most likely will be rehired this month by Veolia and MV Transportation based on a new Orange County Transportation Authority contract.

Layoffs also are only part of the story. New employers are moving into the city, like the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which opened a western regional office in Irvine this year and hired 600 people. Hyundai Motor America moved 120 executives, human resource and business section group people into new offices at the Irvine Business Complex.

Nonetheless, Brown says the city is aware it needs to rethink its business strategy to find replacements for all the mortgage- and finance-related jobs which likely will not come back.

"We are looking at strategies for attracting business and planning that strategy," Brown says.

See the Register's 2009 Orange County layoff list HERE.

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