The largest contract electronics manufacturers with operations in Orange County saw relatively flat employment in the past year.
The 17 companies combined to employ 2,767 workers through May, down less than 1% from a year earlier, according to this week’s Business Journal list.
The small employment drop continues a see-saw trend in hiring within the sector here. Last year companies saw employment rise 4.7%, which followed flat employment in 2010. Jobs among local companies dropped 12% in 2009 during the heart of the recession, erasing a 2.3% increase in 2008 and then some.
The companies on this year’s list posted a 2% gain in overall employment, for a total of 95,475 workers.
The companies on the list make printed circuit boards and other products for computers, consumer electronics and medical device makers. Some serve niche markets for products that have military, aerospace and industrial uses.
Products made here end up in a wide variety of devices, including computers, aircraft, smart phones and medical gear.
Many contract electronics makers started here decades ago to serve a single customer and have stayed competitive by designing and building prototypes or producing small batches on quick turnarounds.
They compete against a bevy of Asian competitors that produce less-complex boards that can be made in large volumes on the cheap.
Seven companies on the list added jobs in the last 12 months and three reported losses. Five companies were flat, and there was no information from the prior year for comparison for two other companies.
No. 1 Santa Ana-based Express Manufacturing Inc., which makes electronics used in the telecommunications and gambling industries, held its top ranking.
The company, known as EMI, added 20 jobs in the past year, up 2.6% from a year earlier. It employs 780 workers in Santa Ana.
No. 2 Santa Ana-based TTM Technol-ogies Inc., which makes circuit boards for the communications, industrial, medical and consumer electronics sectors, added seven employees in the past year here for a total of 432.
Investors punished the company after it missed revenue and profit targets in the first quarter and have sent shares down nearly 24% this year. Last month TTM was downgraded from “buy” to “hold” by TheStreet Ratings, which cited deteriorating profits, disappointing return on equity, and lower profit margins in its report.
TTM is the largest printed circuit board maker in the U.S., with $1.4 billion in sales in 2011. It could lose that crown this year, following Viasystems Group Inc.’s $228 million buy last month of No. 3 DDi Corp. in Anaheim. The combined company, based in St. Louis, is expected to have annual revenue of $1.3 billion and employ some 15,650 workers.
DDi Cuts
DDi trimmed nine positions to 380 employees, down 2.3% from a year ago. It appears the company will maintain a sizable presence here. It’s slated to move down the street from its current home in Anaheim this quarter when the lease expires on the eight-building campus it called home for more than 30 years.
No. 7 Cartel Electronics Inc. was one of three newcomers on the list. The Placentia-based circuit board maker added 25 jobs for a total of 120 employees in OC. The 26.3% jump was the highest percentage increase of any company on the list.
Debuts
Others making a first appearance on the list include No. 16 IMI USA Inc., the Tustin unit of Philippines-based contract manufacturer Integrated Micro-Electronics Inc., and No. 17 Raycon Technology Inc., a Huntington Beach-based maker of connectors, cable assemblies and memory sockets.
Anaheim-based Multi-Fineline Electron-ix Inc., better known as M-Flex, moved down two spots in the rankings to No. 11 after shedding 21 jobs for a total of 60 employees in OC. The 26% drop was the biggest decrease on the list.
The company, which sold its headquarters to DDi earlier this year, is relocating to the Irvine Spectrum. The move comes as M-Flex puts a bigger emphasis on growing operations in China. The company opened two plants there last year, adding some 900,000 square feet of space.
M-Flex once produced much of its circuit boards at its Anaheim headquarters, which still does prototypes and more complex jobs.
It opened its first China plant in the mid-1990s and opened another there in 2003.
M-Flex employs about 16,000 companywide, with a bulk of those workers in China.
Download the 2012 OC’s LARGEST ELECTRONICS MAKERS list (pdf)
