
An employee holds a silicon wafer with chips etched into it at Applied Materials in Sunnyvale, Calif. Jim Wilson/Pool/AFP via Getty Images
Applied Materials, one of the nation’s largest producers of semiconductor-manufacturing equipment, gave the green light this week to a plan to reduce its global workforce by about 4 percent, affecting some 1,400 employees.
Based in Santa Clara, California, the company approved its workforce reduction plan to ensure “continued growth as a more competitive and productive organization,” it noted in its Oct. 23 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

