California layoffs / Applied Materials, Inc.
Applied Materials, Inc. California Layoffs 2025: What Employees Should Know
Applied Materials, Inc. has 15 layoff notices on file with California's Employment Development Department (EDD) under the state's Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, covering 363 jobs in Santa Clara County. That is what the state has published since July 2025, not an all-time total. If you were one of them, here is what the filing says, how much notice the law asks for, and what to look at before you sign anything.
What the filing says
These are the details as Applied Materials, Inc. reported them to the state. The EDD publishes every notice, and this page reflects the data as of Jul 31, 2026. All 15 are listed below; the table scrolls.
| Location | County | Notice given | Jobs end | Workers | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Santa Clara | Santa Clara County | Oct 23, 2025 | Dec 23, 2025 | 38 | Layoff Permanent |
| Santa Clara | Santa Clara County | Oct 23, 2025 | Dec 23, 2025 | 21 | Layoff Permanent |
| Santa Clara | Santa Clara County | Oct 23, 2025 | Dec 23, 2025 | 20 | Layoff Permanent |
| Santa Clara | Santa Clara County | Oct 23, 2025 | Dec 23, 2025 | 16 | Layoff Permanent |
| Santa Clara | Santa Clara County | Oct 23, 2025 | Dec 23, 2025 | 36 | Layoff Permanent |
| Santa Clara | Santa Clara County | Oct 23, 2025 | Dec 23, 2025 | 52 | Layoff Permanent |
| Santa Clara | Santa Clara County | Oct 23, 2025 | Dec 23, 2025 | 6 | Layoff Permanent |
| Santa Clara | Santa Clara County | Oct 23, 2025 | Dec 23, 2025 | 73 | Layoff Permanent |
| Sunnyvale | Santa Clara County | Oct 23, 2025 | Dec 23, 2025 | 26 | Layoff Permanent |
| Sunnyvale | Santa Clara County | Oct 23, 2025 | Dec 23, 2025 | 7 | Layoff Permanent |
| Sunnyvale | Santa Clara County | Oct 23, 2025 | Dec 23, 2025 | 4 | Layoff Permanent |
| Sunnyvale | Santa Clara County | Oct 23, 2025 | Dec 23, 2025 | 1 | Layoff Permanent |
| Sunnyvale | Santa Clara County | Oct 23, 2025 | Dec 23, 2025 | 41 | Layoff Permanent |
| Sunnyvale | Santa Clara County | Oct 23, 2025 | Dec 23, 2025 | 7 | Layoff Permanent |
| Santa Clara | Santa Clara County | Oct 23, 2025 | Dec 23, 2025 | 15 | Layoff Permanent |
How much notice the law requires
California's WARN Act requires 60 days of advance written notice before a covered mass layoff. What makes the California version unusual is how few ways out it gives an employer. The only statutory exception is a physical calamity or an act of war. Federal law has three exceptions, including one for unforeseeable business circumstances, and the California Legislature deliberately declined to copy them.
What this filing shows
The shortest gap in these filings is 61 calendar days between the notice date and the date the jobs end. That is at or above the 60 days the statute describes.
This is a fact drawn from the public filing, not a conclusion that anyone broke the law. The date an employer records is not always the date workers were told, employers of different sizes are covered differently, and exceptions can apply. Whether it means anything in your case is exactly what a free consultation sorts out.
Applied Materials severance: what to check before you sign
A severance offer is not the same thing as the notice pay the WARN Act describes, and an employer cannot use one to satisfy the other. A release may also give up more than you expect, and an arbitration agreement you signed at hire can affect where a dispute is heard. Read our full guide to the California WARN Act before you decide, and consider having the paperwork looked at.
Two things worth doing this week either way. File for unemployment now, because WARN money does not reduce it. And keep every document, including the notice itself and anything showing when it arrived.
Free case review
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Questions people are asking
What is the Applied Materials severance package?
The WARN notice Applied Materials filed with the state does not list severance terms, and we do not publish any employer's package. A WARN notice reports how many jobs end, where, and when. Severance is a separate contract offered at the employer's discretion. California law does not require it, and an employer cannot use contractual severance to satisfy what the WARN Act requires, so being offered a package does not by itself answer whether notice pay is also owed. If you have an offer in hand, the terms in front of you are the ones that matter, and they are worth reading closely before the deadline on them runs.
Am I owed severance from Applied Materials, Inc.?
California law does not require severance on its own, and a severance offer is a separate thing from WARN pay. An employer cannot use contractual severance to satisfy its WARN obligation, so being offered a package does not answer whether notice pay is also owed.
Does taking the severance reduce what I could recover?
It depends on why the money is being paid. Severance the employer was already obligated to provide — under a contract, a policy, a benefit plan, or a union agreement — cannot be set against what the WARN Act requires. A payment that is genuinely voluntary and unconditional, one the employer had no legal obligation to make, can reduce that liability. Wages for work you actually performed during the notice period are not voluntary severance at all. Which category an offer falls into is a question about the document in front of you, not about the layoff, and it is one of the better reasons to have the paperwork read before the deadline on it runs.
What if I did not get 60 days of notice?
California's WARN Act requires 60 days of advance written notice before a covered mass layoff, and its only statutory exception is a physical calamity or an act of war. That is far narrower than federal law, which has three exceptions. The shortest gap in these filings is 61 days, at or above the 60 the statute describes. Notice can still fall short in practice if it did not reach you when the filing says, or if it lacked what the statute requires it to contain.
Can I still collect unemployment?
Yes. Under Labor Code section 1407, WARN-related payments are not treated as wages for unemployment purposes, so they cannot be used to deny or reduce your benefits in California. You do not have to wait for your last day — the filings here run through Dec 23, 2025 — and filing early is generally better than filing late.
Does taking a new job hurt my claim?
No. Wages you earn at a new job during the notice period do not reduce what a former employer may owe under WARN. You do not need to delay a job search to protect a claim.
How long do I have to act?
Generally three years. The federal WARN Act sets no limitations period of its own, so courts borrow the closest state deadline, which in California is the three-year period for a liability created by statute. The clock starts when you suffer an employment loss, not when the notice went out. Measured from the last day of work in these filings, Dec 23, 2025, three years runs to about Dec 23, 2028. If this was a layoff rather than an outright termination, the loss may not count until the layoff has lasted more than six months, which can start the clock later still. Treat all of it as an outer edge rather than a plan. Other claims arising from the same layoff run much shorter, and a severance offer usually carries its own deadline measured in days.
What has been reported
Press coverage of this layoff, summarized and attributed. This is reporting rather than the filing itself, and we did not independently verify it.
Applied Materials told the state Employment Development Department it would eliminate 363 South Bay jobs, with the reductions affecting 262 workers in Santa Clara, 86 in Sunnyvale and 15 remote workers who report to Santa Clara, and said it would conduct the layoffs around Dec. 23, The Mercury News reported.
The California filings are part of a company-wide reduction of less than 4% of Applied Materials' roughly 36,100 full-time employees, which the chip equipment maker began notifying on Oct. 23, 2025 "across all levels and groups," CNBC reported. The company attributed the cuts to "automation, digitalization and geographic shifts" redefining its workforce needs and skill requirements.
Details worth knowing
- Applied Materials described the layoffs as permanent, noted that the affected workers are not represented by a union, and stated that no affected employees have bumping rights over workers who have less seniority, according to The Mercury News.
- CNBC reported that Applied Materials expects to incur charges of approximately $160 million to $180 million as a result of the workforce reduction, consisting primarily of severance and other one-time employment termination benefits to be paid in cash.
Sources: The Mercury News (via The Daily Gazette) (opens in a new tab)CNBC (opens in a new tab)
What the numbers show
- The filings name 2 locations: Santa Clara and Sunnyvale.
- They cover 15 separate addresses rather than a single site, so co-workers at different locations may have received different dates.
- By headcount it sits in the top 10% of the 593 employer layoffs tracked here.
- The latest notice arrived in October 2025, the busiest month in this dataset: California employers filed 217 WARN notices statewide.
- The 363 workers leaving Applied Materials, Inc. re-enter a job market where Santa Clara County unemployment stood at 4% in June 2026, below the 5.2% statewide rate (Bureau of Labor Statistics, not seasonally adjusted).
- All 15 notices are dated within a single month, October 2025, which reads as one event reported site by site rather than a rolling reduction.
These are counts and comparisons drawn from the published filings, not findings about Applied Materials.
Free job-search help near the affected sites
America's Job Center of California is the state's no-cost network for laid-off workers: help filing and keeping unemployment benefits, federally funded retraining, and résumé and interview coaching. Your WARN notice may name one; this is the closest to the site in these filings.
NOVAworks (opens in a new tab)
456 W. Olive Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA 94086 · 408-730-7232
Comprehensive center (full services on site) · about 1.1 miles from the Sunnyvale site
Locations and hours change — confirm before visiting, or find another center with the EDD's center locator (opens in a new tab). Directory: U.S. Department of Labor, Jul 31, 2026; distances are straight-line from the address in the filing.
Other layoffs filed in Santa Clara County around the same time
72 employers have WARN notices on file in Santa Clara County, covering 11,407 workers. These filed within about a quarter of this one.
- Amazon6,938 workers
- Meta Platforms, Inc.4,150 workers
- Oracle America, Inc.1,250 workers
- Cisco Systems, Inc.692 workers
- Walmart587 workers
- Intuitive Surgical, Inc.331 workers
Listed because they appear in the same county in the same public data. No connection between these employers is implied.
Key points
Each point is explained and sourced above · Verified July 31, 2026
Key points from Applied Materials, Inc. California layoffs 2025, verified as of July 31, 2026
Workers affected · Santa Clara County · published since July 2025
363
CA EDD WARN report
Notices filed · California · published July 2025 to July 2026
15
CA EDD WARN report
Jobs end · As filed
Dec 23, 2025
CA EDD WARN report
Days between notice and last day · Arithmetic on two published dates
61 calendar days
CA EDD WARN report
Santa Clara County unemployment rate · vs 5.2% statewide, not seasonally adjusted
4% (June 2026)
BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics
Notice California law describes · California
60 days before a covered mass layoff
Lab. Code § 1401
Available exceptions · California
Physical calamity or act of war only
Lab. Code § 1401
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