Laid off from Western Digital.

What Western Digital layoffs have meant for employees

Western Digital's 2026 cuts landed in a strong year for the business. Revenue rose 36% in fiscal 2026 on what its annual report called strong demand across all of its end markets, and the same filing credits part of a jump in research spending to increased headcount. The cash termination benefits it booked that year were also the largest of the three years its 10-K's realignment note sets side by side. It wasn't the first time Bay Area staff went through this, either, since The Mercury News noted the company's wide-ranging layoffs in the region a decade earlier. If you were let go in San Jose in 2026, you lost a job at a company whose sales were growing, and that's its own kind of sting.

The California notices show the part of Western Digital's cuts that a U.S. state records. Most of the company's workforce is in Asia Pacific, and both plant closures on record were there, as Western Digital's 2018 quarterly report and fiscal 2016 annual report describe them. If you work at one of its Asian sites, our tracker won't show your plant, since it reads U.S. state notices, and the company's own filings and local reporting are where those closures surfaced.

Western Digital today is the hard drive side of the company it was before February 21, 2025, when it split off its flash memory business and Sandisk became an independent public company, as the 2026 annual report notes. Its count of about 40,000 employees at the end of fiscal 2026 covers that hard drive business alone, so the workforce it describes now is a different one from the company that existed before the split.

Both January layoffs were listed as permanent, the first by Western Digital in the letter The Mercury News reported on and the second in California's WARN report, so there's no recall date to wait on. The letter for the January 20 cuts also said no one would have the right to bump or displace other employees and that no union represented the people affected. If you were among them and got a separation offer, you can ask HR which plan or policy set its terms and for a copy.

By the close of fiscal 2026 on July 3, the company reported paying $98 million against its employee termination benefits during the year and carrying no balance left on them, the same realignment note shows. If you were cut that year and a payment you were told to expect hasn't arrived, it's worth raising with HR in writing. That note also counts $9 million in stock-based termination benefits for fiscal 2026, a line that was empty in the two years before. If you hold unvested Western Digital shares and are offered a separation package, consider asking whether any of those shares are part of it.

Western Digital's filings describe these charges as something it periodically incurs to realign the business with what it expects to need, and the cuts have come in hard years and strong ones alike, from the challenging climate a spokesperson cited to the Orange County Business Journal in 2022 to the demand that lifted revenue in 2026. If you're still there and worried about your own job, that history suggests a strong year hasn't kept cuts away before. Both 2026 notices were California filings; if you were among those let go, our California unemployment benefits page covers filing a claim in that state, and our California layoffs page sets these notices beside other employers' cuts there.

A sourced history of Western Digital layoffs

• January 2026, Western Digital cuts at San Jose headquarters

  The South San Jose head offices lost 87 jobs on January 20, The Mercury News reported, and 47 in a permanent layoff on January 27, per California's WARN report. Separately, Western Digital's quarterly report said it took further steps that month to streamline functions, expecting about $50 million more in termination costs.

• November 2022, Western Digital global workforce reduction

  Western Digital told California it would permanently lay off 62 people at its Irvine offices effective January 13, 2023, the Orange County Business Journal reported, as a spokesperson cited a global workforce reduction amid a challenging macroeconomic climate.

• July 2018, Western Digital Malaysian plant closure

  Western Digital announced it would close its Malaysian hard drive plant by the end of 2019 and consolidate the work in Thailand, expecting about $85 million in employee termination benefits, its quarterly report said.

• April 2017, Western Digital headquarters move to San Jose

  Moving its headquarters from Irvine brought 51 layoffs there and 131 in San Jose, both set for June 2, plus about 120 positions elsewhere in its worldwide operations, The Register reported from state filings.

• Fiscal 2016, Western Digital HGST integration and Odawara closure

  Western Digital began integrating HGST and WD under a plan expecting $185 million in termination benefits, and in January 2016 announced closing its Odawara, Japan wafer plant, booking $119 million in termination benefits that year, its annual report said.

What to do if you're laid off from Western Digital

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