Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) is laying off a total of 160 jobs in its diagnostics operation, continuing a streamlining effort it launched in 2008.
The cuts include 10 jobs at the health care conglomerate’s Chicago headquarters and about 150 positions at a plant in Santa Clara, Calif., according to the Chicago Tribune.
Abbott is transferring the production of some of its diagnostic products to contract manufacturers, spokeswoman Kelly Morrison told the newspaper. The cuts in Santa Clara will be finished by the end of next year, Morrison said, leaving about 200 employees in research and development, sales and marketing for the company’s hematology unit.
Sign up to get our free newsletters delivered right to your inbox
The Chicago employees, all division headquarters staff, will see their positions phased out by the end of the year.
In January, Abbott announced plans to shed 1,900 jobs, or about 2 percent of its global workforce, blaming “changes in the healthcare industry, including U.S. Health Care Reform and the challenging regulatory environment,” according to company officials.
Last summer, about 120 diagnostics employees at an Abbott plant in Dallas were laid off. In June 2010, Abbott eliminated 120 jobs in its California stent-making operation, laying off 101 workers from its Temecula and Murrieta vascular stent manufacturing facilities and the remaining 19 in Santa Clara.
