AUSTIN, Texas — Two Williamson-county based companies will be laying off a combined 186 employees.
A report from KVUE's news partners at the Austin American-Statesman states that Round Rock-based nonprofit Trellis Company, a student loan guarantor that helps college students handle finances, will cut 105 jobs.
Additionally, technology firm Ibase Operations Corp., based in northwest Austin, will axe 81 employees located at the 7700 Parmer Lane facility.
The layoffs were reported by Trellis and Ibase in WARN letters sent to the Texas Workforce Commission. WARN letters, which stands for Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, are federally mandated notices employers must provide to the state prior to major layoffs.
The Statesman report detailed that Trellis notified the State in a letter sent on March 9 about the planned April layoffs. The letter said the reductions will take place on April 4 at Trellis' location at 301 Sundance Parkway. Some of the affected employees will include remote workers who are associated with the office.
According to the Statesman, Trellis has assisted college students for more than 40 years. The company is known for providing information and services related to applying for, securing and repaying federal student loans.
In Trellis' WARN letter, Vice President of Human Resources Linda Hackleman said the layoffs were caused by the loss of a federal government contract.
"Our understanding is that this is likely due to the federal agency's desire to realize certain cost savings," Hackleman said. "The result is that the prime contractor no longer needs Trellis' services."
Ibase said in its WARN letter that employees will have the opportunity to relocate to Mexico or India. Ibase contractors work for client Qualitest Corp., a Connecticut-based artificial intelligence engineering company.
"With the current global macroeconomic conditions, the Search Language Specialist (SLS) program is taking a proactive step towards improvement of budget and resources for 2023 and onwards," a letter to employees said. "To support you during this time, we will provide you upskilling programs. We hope that completing these programs will help you to rotate to opportunities outside of SLS within and outside Qualitest."
Ibase and Trellis join a growing list of companies in the Austin area that are reducing their respective workforces. Other work reductions in Austin include security contract firm Security Specialists Inc. cutting 240 jobs; Israeli-based software company Wix.com cutting 100 Austin jobs and dozens more in other U.S. cities; and Walmart closing down its Central Texas technology development office.
Simultaneously, tech giants with large Austin presences – including Google, Facebook parent company Meta, Tesla and Dell Technologies – have laid off thousands of employees since late last year 2022.
Read the full report from the Austin American-Statesman.