Laid off from Microchip Technology.

What Microchip Technology layoffs have meant for employees

Microchip planned to keep making Fab 2's products elsewhere. Many of the fab's processes already ran in its Oregon and Colorado factories, which had clean room space to expand, and it would move products there as needed, its December 2024 8-K said; a company spokesman later called those two plants key to its long-term production plans, according to Colorado Politics. If you lost a Tempe job and Microchip offers you a spot in Gresham or Colorado Springs, the shift, the pay and any help with moving are fair things to raise before you decide.

In March 2025, chief executive Steve Sanghi said in a presentation that Microchip would size its Colorado Springs and Oregon fabs below the near-term demand rate and ramp them back up once excess inventory was corrected. Both plants had also been in line to grow. The Colorado Springs upgrade, which the Commerce Department said in January 2024 it planned to back with federal money, had been on hold for almost a year, Colorado Politics reported, and the Gresham furloughs were announced days after Microchip won federal funding to expand that plant, according to The Oregonian. If you're weighing whether to hold out for a call back from either plant, the ramp-up remark spoke to output, while the Colorado Springs letter called its layoffs permanent.

Microchip's own fiscal 2019 annual report says it will from time to time book restructuring costs after buying a company, and that it can't estimate them when a deal is struck because it reviews each position, contract and expense against its targets and decides on a rolling basis while the business is integrated. The same filing says acquired companies often run less efficiently than Microchip does, which is where its savings come from. By that filing's account, the announcement of a deal didn't settle when each restructuring decision would be made. If a retention offer comes while Microchip is buying your employer, you can weigh it with that in mind.

Atmel set up its severance plan before it was sold and told staff it was "intended to ease concerns," and according to the Ninth Circuit, an Atmel FAQ that evidence suggests Microchip reviewed and approved said Microchip would honor the plan. Microchip later told Atmel employees the plan had expired. In reversing a ruling against two of those employees in 2025, the appeals court said a court judging a release like the ones Atmel staff signed should weigh, among other things, how long the employee had to consider it, whether they could talk to a lawyer, whether the payment beat what they were already owed and whether improper conduct by the fiduciary induced it. If you're offered severance in exchange for a release, it's fair to ask which plan the money is paid under, and the Atmel case is a reason to compare the release with what that plan promises as you weigh the offer.

If Microchip let you go from Atmel without cause between April 4, 2016 and March 19, 2017 and you worked in the U.S., that's the group the court certified as a class in 2020 and the one covered by the settlement the court preliminarily approved in August 2026, according to the court’s order. Class counsel put the range of possible recoveries at $5,800 to $136,600, and the court found the terms largely identical to the Berman settlement for former Atmel staff who hadn't signed releases.

If your job ended at the Tempe fab, or at Gresham or Colorado Springs, where the March 2025 8-K put cuts, Arizona unemployment benefits, Colorado unemployment benefits and Oregon unemployment benefits are the places to check each state's rules for a claim.

A sourced history of Microchip Technology layoffs

• October 2025, notice for Tempe fab maintenance staff

  Microchip's notice on Arizona’s WARN register listed 63 people at its idle Tempe fab, staff it had kept to maintain the plant after production stopped, according to a Phoenix Business Journal story on ABC15.

• March 2025, about 2,000 job cuts announced

  Microchip began cutting staff at its Gresham, Oregon, and Colorado Springs fabs, a Philippine plant and its business units and support groups, its March 3 8-K said. Colorado Springs' notice listed 238 permanent layoffs, per Colorado Politics, and a spokesperson counted 330 Tempe workers among the cuts, per ABC15.

• December 2024, Tempe Fab 2 closure announced

  Microchip planned to end manufacturing at Fab 2, its Tempe wafer plant, expecting about 500 employees to be affected and citing high inventory, its December 2 8-K said; it moved the shutdown up to May in a March 2025 8-K.

• Fiscal 2019, separation costs tied to recent acquisitions

  Microchip recorded $65.3 million for employee separations in the year to March 2019, tied to its latest acquisitions, its annual report for that year says, and expected more such costs as savings turned up in the Microsemi deal.

• Fiscal 2017, cuts after the Atmel and Micrel purchases

  Folding in Atmel and Micrel brought workforce and other cuts and $39.1 million in separation costs in the year to March 2017, by which time the work was substantially complete, according to Microchip's fiscal 2019 annual report.

What to do if you're laid off from Microchip Technology

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. Microchip Technology's biggest hubs: Arizona, Colorado, California, 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 Microchip Technology's hub states run: Arizona, Colorado, California, 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.