Apr. 28--California-based Atmel Corp. laid off 266 employees from its Colorado Springs semiconductor plant Tuesday, its second round of layoffs in five months amid slumping sales.

The plant employed about 1,480 people before the layoff and comes as the Colorado Springs job market continues to deteriorate -- the local unemployment rate jumped to a 21-year high of 8.6 percent in March with more than 26,000 people out of work.

"Atmel, like many companies in our industry, is seeing the effects of the broader economic decline, and factory utilization is below what we anticipated in December," according to a statement from the company. "Although difficult given the impact on employees, these actions are necessary to ensure Atmel's competitiveness. Atmel has many hard working and dedicated employees, and we are committed to helping smooth the transition for those affected, including providing severance and outplacement services."

Atmel's local plant is the only semiconductor manufacturing operation left in the Colorado Springs area after Intel Corp. halted production at its local plant in 2007. The plant makes microcontrollers used in touch screens, battery management systems and other devices, but also makes nonvolatile memory chips that retain information when power is cut as well as application-specific semiconductors and other chips used in the automotive industry.

Atmel previously laid off 245 employees at the plant in December and shut down for 11 days starting Dec. 24 as part of companywide restructuring program that affected 11 percent of its 6,800 employees and was designed to save $18 million a year in operating costs. The company also imposed a hiring freeze except for "critical" positions and put "strict controls" on discretionary spending amid a double-digit percentage revenue decline.

The Atmel job cuts come just days after Agilent Technologies Inc. cut 250 of its 1,450 employees in Boulder, Colorado Springs, Englewood and Loveland as part of companywide restructuring that will eliminate 2,700 jobs, or 25 percent of the work force in its electronic measurement operations, said Jean Mooney, an Agilent spokeswoman in Loveland. The number of cuts in the Springs, where Agilent employs 540, has not been determined, she said.

The company will continue to notify affected employees through next month with the layoffs phased in throughout the rest of the year, Mooney said. Most local Agilent employees work in the electronic measurement unit or in administrative and support jobs, she said.

Agilent announced the cuts in March based on a forecast that revenue from the electronic measurement operations would decline 30 percent this year to the lowest level in the company's 10-year history. The move will cut costs for the unit by $300 million a year and comes after Agilent launched a restructuring late last year to cut administrative and support costs, including information technology, legal and human resources.

Call the writer at 636-0234

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