Dow Corning To Lay Off 500

MIDLAND -- Dow Corning Corp. said Wednesday that it will lay off 500 employees, mostly in the professional ranks of the company.

In a statement, the company said the layoffs "are designed to better align the company's cost structure with the realities of today's volatile global economy." The company said it is "facing significant challenges including oversupplied markets, high raw materials costs and slowed growth in many regions."

The company declined to make executives available for interviews. But in a prepared statement, president and CEO Robert D. Hansen said: "Our company's greatest asset is our people and this is a difficult decision to have to make. We are taking steps to ease the transition of affected employees and understand there are a lot of talented, hard-working people leaving our team."

Hansen added that the company "added significant professional capability and resources in support of expected and sustained growth in recent years. Since that growth didn't materialize as expected, it was necessary to re-evaluate those investment decisions given the state of the global economy."

Dow Corning provides more than 7,000 products and services to more than 25,000 customers worldwide. Dow Corning is equally owned by Midland's Dow Chemical Co. and New York-based Corning Inc.

More at www.dowcorning.com.