Laid off from Coherent.
Coherent is II-VI under the name of the company it bought in 2022, three years after it bought Finisar. Its recent cuts show up as restructuring charges and a count of 33 sites sold or exited, while our WARN tracker has no Coherent filing dated after 2024.
At a glance
What's known about Coherent severance and layoffs
- 0 filings covering 0 jobs · Coherent WARN filings since 2025, our tracker
- 8, predecessor names included · Coherent WARN filings in our tracker, all time
- $62 million · Coherent 2025 restructuring plan charges, fiscal 2026
- $107 million · Coherent 2025 restructuring plan charges, fiscal 2025
- 33, counted at its February 2026 call · Sites Coherent sold or exited in six quarters
- 51,478, up from 30,216 a year earlier · Coherent employees, June 30, 2026
- September 2, 2025, for about $400 million · Coherent aerospace and defense business sold
Recent Coherent layoffs
Coherent booked $62 million under its 2025 restructuring plan in the year to June 2026
Coherent's fiscal 2026 annual report, covering the twelve months through June 30, 2026, puts the 2025 plan's net charges at $62 million, mostly equipment write-offs, employee termination and site closure costs, landing mainly in the Industrial and Corporate segments. It still carried $23 million of accrued severance at year-end, expected to go out mostly through fiscal 2027.
Previous rounds
Coherent layoff history
Coherent's recent cuts show up in its SEC filings rather than in the state notices our tracker collects. Management approved a restructuring plan in the quarter ended March 31, 2025, and the fiscal 2026 annual report puts that plan's net charges at $107 million for fiscal 2025 and $62 million for fiscal 2026, for written-off equipment, employee and contract terminations and, in fiscal 2026, site closures. In our tracker, Coherent shows 0 filings covering 0 jobs since the start of 2025. Under federal law, as the Labor Department summarizes it, a company with 100 or more employees, generally not counting those with under six months on the job in the last 12 months or averaging under 20 hours a week, must as a general rule give written notice at least 60 calendar days ahead of a plant closing or mass layoff that affects 50 or more employees at a single site. That summary doesn't settle whether any particular Coherent cut was covered.
Coherent also sold two businesses in that stretch. The aerospace and defense business went for about $400 million on September 2, 2025, and the Munich division that makes materials-processing tools followed on January 30, 2026. A Motley Fool writeup of the February 4, 2026 earnings call tied the Munich sale to about 425 fewer employees and counted 33 sites sold or exited over six quarters, 10 of them that quarter. Total headcount went the other way, to 51,478 at June 30, 2026 from 30,216 a year earlier, and the call writeup described a six-inch indium phosphide ramp in Sherman, Texas and in Sweden. That's cold comfort if your site was one of the 33.
The U.S. notices on record trace the company's family tree as much as its cuts. In October 2019, Finisar, newly owned by II-VI, was closing its Allen, Texas plant, putting 104 employees out of work as 4-inch gallium arsenide work moved to a 6-inch line in Sherman. II-VI's HR chief said they had 60 days' notice and transition help. After II-VI bought Coherent, Inc. and took the Coherent Corp. name, a WARN letter to California's Employment Development Department set 108 layoffs at the Finisar subsidiary in Fremont for May 15, 2023, citing "a fall in business demand." New Jersey's 2023 WARN list shows 127 workers in Warren, effective July 12, 2023, and the Mercury News reported in April 2024 that Coherent had filed notice of 61 permanent layoffs in Santa Clara. Our tracker counts 8 filings under Coherent and its predecessors' names, all before 2025.
The severance on record comes in company-wide totals. When the board approved the May 2023 plan, Coherent's 8-K put expected charges at $150 million to $200 million "primarily as a result of the reduction in force and facility consolidations," including an expected $75 million to $100 million in cash severance and benefits. The 2025 plan booked $24.0 million of severance in fiscal 2025 and $27.6 million in fiscal 2026. At June 30, 2026, $23 million of that plan's accrued severance was still to be paid, mostly through fiscal 2027, and the 2023 plan's remaining accrual was expected to run through fiscal 2028.
Since the filings give plan-wide totals, the terms that matter sit in your own paperwork, so ask HR for them in writing, including how your service is counted if you came in through Finisar or Coherent, Inc. If your job was in New Jersey and the layoff met that state's WARN thresholds, its summary says employers there must give 90 days' notice plus a week of severance pay per year worked, a figure to hold any offer against. The Labor Department notes that some states have plant-closing laws of their own. Our unemployment pages for California, New Jersey and Texas, where the notices above were filed, cover each state's rules.
Reporting on previous Coherent layoff rounds
Fiscal 2026 (July 2025 to June 2026), company-wide · $62 million of 2025-plan charges for equipment write-offs, employee termination and site closure costs, mainly in the Industrial and Corporate segments
The filing books $27.6 million of severance for the year and describes no individual package.
Fiscal 2025 (plan approved January to March 2025), company-wide · $107 million of 2025-plan charges, mostly written-off equipment and lease assets plus employee and contract termination costs
The filing books $24.0 million of severance for the year and describes no individual package.
April 2024, Santa Clara, California · 61 permanent layoffs in a notice to the state's Employment Development Department, scheduled for June 10
May 2023, company-wide restructuring plan · Board approval on May 23 for site consolidations and closures, expected to cost $150 million to $200 million, including an expected $75 million to $100 million in cash severance and benefits
The 8-K sizes severance for the whole plan and describes no individual package.
May 2023, Fremont, California · 108 employees at the Finisar subsidiary on Christy Street, no bumping rights, with layoffs set for May 15 in a WARN letter to the state
April 2023, Warren, New Jersey · 127 workers on the state's WARN list, effective July 12, 2023
October 2019, Allen, Texas (Finisar) · 104 employees as Finisar was closing its Allen plant, with terminations expected by Nov. 25 and, per II-VI, 60 days' notice
What to do after being laid off from Coherent
- File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. Coherent's biggest hubs: California, New Jersey, Texas. Somewhere else? Every state is here.
- Apply for financial and hardship assistance. Unemployment supplements income, but food benefits, health coverage and utility help are often available as well. Here's some of what Coherent's hub states run: California, New Jersey, Texas, and every other state is here.
- Mind the health insurance window. Losing coverage opens a 60-day special enrollment period, and an ACA plan usually beats unsubsidized COBRA. Compare your options before the employer coverage lapses, and read how the COBRA clocks run if you are weighing it seriously.
- Get your real runway number. Severance plus savings divided by reality. The calculator takes five minutes.
- Know which clocks are already running. Severance review windows, COBRA election, visa grace periods, and 401(k) rollovers all run on federal deadlines that started at termination. All five deadlines are here.
Coherent layoff and severance questions
Has Coherent had layoffs in 2026?
Coherent booked $62 million under the 2025 restructuring plan in the twelve months to June 30, 2026, its fiscal 2026 annual report shows, including employee termination and site closure costs, mainly in the Industrial and Corporate segments. Our WARN tracker holds no Coherent filing for 2026.
How many sites has Coherent closed?
No closure-only count is on record. By Coherent's February 2026 earnings call, a Motley Fool writeup of the call counted 33 sites sold or exited over six quarters, 10 of them in the quarter being reported, a tally that takes in transactions such as the completed sale of the Munich materials-processing division. The aerospace and defense business was sold for about $400 million in September 2025.
Does Coherent pay severance when it lays people off?
The filings report severance as plan-wide totals, $24.0 million in fiscal 2025 and $27.6 million in fiscal 2026 under the 2025 plan. If your job was in New Jersey, your employer had at least 100 employees and a mass layoff hit at least 50 workers at your worksite, the state's summary of its WARN law, as changed on April 10, 2023, says discharged employees get a week of severance pay per year worked.
Is Coherent the same company as II-VI and Finisar?
Yes. II-VI bought Finisar in 2019 and Coherent, Inc. in 2022, then renamed itself Coherent Corp. That's why a 2023 WARN letter in Fremont covered Coherent's Finisar subsidiary, and why our tracker counts filings under the older names too, 8 in all.
Where do I file for unemployment after being laid off from Coherent?
In the state where you worked, not where the company is headquartered. Coherent's biggest U.S. hubs are California, New Jersey, Texas. Severance usually doesn't block you from filing, and benefits run from your filing date, so file the same week.
Is it OK to file for unemployment after a layoff at Coherent?
Yes. Unemployment insurance is funded by payroll taxes employers pay on wages, the claim never appears on credit reports or background checks, and future employers cannot see it. If the hesitation itself is the obstacle, whether filing is OK has its own article.
What happens to my health insurance after a layoff at Coherent?
Your plan sets the end date rather than the law, so the separation packet is where that date actually lives, and it is often the last day of the month rather than your last day of work. After coverage ends, COBRA lets you keep the identical plan by paying the whole premium yourself, up to 102 percent of what the plan really costs, which lands as several times the payroll deduction you were used to. You get 60 days to elect, counted from the later of coverage ending or the election notice arriving, and electing reaches the coverage back to the day the old plan stopped so no gap exists. How continuation coverage works walks the timing, and whether to take it rather than a marketplace plan is a separate decision.
Should I sign the severance agreement right away?
First pin down how much review time you actually have. If you're 40 or older, federal law gives you 21 days to consider an agreement that waives age claims, 45 in a group layoff, and a waiver signed under a shorter deadline can be invalid. If you're under 40, no federal window applies and the deadline in your packet may be real, so confirm it in writing and ask for more time if you need it. Use whatever window you have to read the release terms, especially non-disparagement and no-lawsuit clauses, and don't stall past a real deadline, because offers can be withdrawn.
Can I collect unemployment if I got severance from Coherent?
Usually yes, though some states delay benefits until severance pay periods end, and lump sums are treated differently than salary continuation. Check your state's rules on our state benefit pages, and file immediately either way so your claim date is locked in.