Copyright The Oregonian
Wells Fargo plans to lay off another 444 workers in Hillsboro and Salem on Dec. 26, the day after Christmas. With the latest cuts, announced Tuesday, Wells Fargo will have laid off more than 1,200 Oregon employees since last December. The Oregonian/OregonLive reported a year ago that Wells Fargo planned sweeping layoffs across its state operations. The bank didn’t immediately respond to questions about the pending layoffs but said last year that it was consolidating operations in fewer cities. “These business decisions are never easy. We are very thoughtful and deliberate in our approach, understanding the impact these decisions have on individuals at the company,” Cristina Stokes, vice president of Wells Fargo’s displacements advisory group, wrote Tuesday to state workforce officials in a note disclosing the fresh round of layoffs. Tuesday’s job cuts include 263 employees in Hillsboro, 147 in Salem and another 34 in Portland. The layoffs include hundreds of customer service jobs and various administrative positions. Wells Fargo said it will pay severance to laid-off employees, though many may have already left during the protracted layoff process that began late last year. Oregon is enduring a historic wave of job cuts across many industries, with employers eliminating more than 11,000 jobs through mass layoffs since early 2024. That’s on par with the pace of job cuts during the Great Recession. The state’s labor market has slowed over the past two years but remains relatively sturdy by historical standards. Oregon’s jobless rate was 5.0% in August. More recent figures aren’t available because of the federal government’s ongoing shutdown.
