The county’s largest computer products makers combined for a modest gain in local employment last year to reverse a four-year trend of job losses.
The 25 largest computer products companies with operations here added 90 local jobs in the 12 months through April, up 1.5% from a year ago, according to this week’s Business Journal list.
The return to hiring could indicate a slow comeback in technology spending and the end of deep cost cuts for computer products makers.
In the past four years, the companies on our annual list combined to cut more than 2,000 jobs as corporate customers cut back on technology spending.
The companies on this year’s list employ a total of 6,225 people.
Seven companies added em-ployees through April. Three shed jobs and another three saw em-ployment unchanged from a year earlier.
Four were Business Journal estimates and eight companies did not provide information from a year ago for comparison.
The county’s two largest computer products companies saw flat employment, keeping overall gains modest.
No. 1 Western Digital Corp., an Irvine-based maker of disk drives, held steady at 1,300 local jobs.
Western Digital’s drives go into computers, external storage devices, corporate networks and consumer electronics.
The company bucked the job-cutting trend a year ago, adding about 100 workers as it continued to build upon its $65 million acquisition of Aliso Viejo-based SiliconSystems Inc.
More Coming
Western Digital will add some local jobs later this year when it concludes its $4.3 billion acquisition of San Jose-based Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, expected to close in the third quarter.
Hitachi Global Storage employs 35,000 worldwide, including 135 people in Santa Ana, good for No. 14 on this year’s list.
Western Digital leads key rival Scotts Valley-based Seagate Technologies LLC in market share by number of drives shipped but trails on revenue.
The Hitachi buy stands to make Western Digital the undisputed drive leader by any measure. The deal is expected to take the company’s market share to 49%, up from 31% now.
No. 2 Fountain Valley-based Kingston Technology Co., a maker of memory products for computers and consumer electronics, also held steady with 825 employees.
Kingston historically has maintained steady employment regardless of the economic climate, according to Human Resource Director Cathy Schulte.
“We do our best to not dramatically increase new hires when business is good,” she said. “This way, we avoid major reductions in work force when the tide is less favorable to us.”
Despite a challenging year for many technology companies, Kingston saw record revenue of $6.5 billion in 2010, up 59% from a year earlier, as prices for memory chips rebounded and demand improved.
The surge made Kingston the county’s largest privately held company, surpassing the Newport Beach-based parent of Pacific Life Insurance Co.
Kingston is expecting lower revenue this year as demand for its memory products slows.
The company also could face possible disruptions to production and distribution stemming from the recent earthquake and tsunami that hit some of the company’s suppliers in Japan.
“We expect the overall business to be down year over year,” said Mark Leathem, vice president of corporate marketing. “Our business is not always a reflection of the economy, as our best year in 2010 happened in a bad year overall.”
Western Digital and Kingston combined to employ 2,125 workers here, about 34% of the entire group on this week’s list.
No. 3 Irvine-based Toshiba America Information Systems Inc., a collection of Irvine-based business units that’s part of Japan’s Toshiba Corp., added 23 employees for a total of 513.
A year ago Toshiba cut 141 jobs at its local operations, a 22% slide.
Toshiba’s Irvine campus has 1,550 workers spread across four business units that make printers, fax machines, projectors, telecommunications gear, external portable storage drives and other office products.
No. 21, Irvine-based memory products maker Netlist Inc., moved up three spots after adding 29 employees—the most of any company on the list—to 74 people.
The 64% jump also was the highest percentage increase in employment of any company.
“When you start out with a small base the percentage increase can look pretty big,” said Chief Executive Chuck Hong.
Beyond Memory
Netlist was founded in 2000 and went public in late 2006.
The company now is looking to move beyond memory modules, which help computers run faster but largely are considered a commodity.
The company’s more advanced controller chips help boost performance, cut down on power and save on costs for running data storage centers, according to Netlist.
It’s projecting a 50% jump in revenue in 2011 as memory products geared for businesses roll out.
In 2010 Netlist reported revenue of about $38 million.
“We need more headcount to support that organic growth,” Hong said.
Engineers Wanted
The company has been hiring engineers here and in San Jose, where it opened an office about six months ago, according to Hong.
The Irvine operation of No. 13 San Jose-based Quantum Corp. was the biggest decliner on the list.
Quantum employs administrative, sales, service, and research and development workers here. It shed 22 jobs and now has 153 employees in its Irvine office, down 12.6% from a year ago.
Download the 2011 OC’s LARGEST COMPUTER PRODUCTS COS list (pdf)
