Nearly 500 Laid Off At Major Phoenix Company

PHOENIX, AZ — Nearly 500 employees in Phoenix will be losing their jobs, according to the most recent reports of WARN notices.

Earlier this month, Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notices were filed by SDH Education West, LLC, doing business as Sodexo, which provides catering, facilities management, employee benefits and personal home services to about 100 million consumers daily.

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In Arizona, the company’s partnership was with Grand Canyon University, according to the WARN notice.

The company, headquartered in Maryland, plans to lay off 489 employees, according to the WARN notice.

Under federal law, employers must give at least 60 days' written notice before large-scale layoffs or facility closures affecting 50 or more workers.

Those notices, known as WARN notices, offer an early look at planned job cuts before they happen. Arizona's WARN database tracks only layoffs affecting jobs within the state.

The notices come as Arizona's job market shows signs of strain.

The state's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate climbed to 4.7% in March — up from 4.5% in January and 4.6% in February — even as the national rate fell over the same period, according to an April 30 report from the Arizona Office of Economic Opportunity.