1,200 Tampa Bay Employees To Be Laid Off From 4 Companies

TAMPA BAY, FL — More than 1,200 Tampa Bay workers will be looking for new jobs in 2020 as several companies begin making major layoffs.

About 556 workers will lose their jobs when Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. closes its facility at 7725 Woodland Center Blvd. in Carrollwood.

The Woodland Center employees of the New Jersey-based company moderate content for Facebook. In a Dec. 18 notice to the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, the company announced that it will shut down the Carrollwood facility and lay off the employees there beginning Feb. 29.

The company said the layoffs follow its decision to get out of the business of flagging content for Facebook and other online sites. In addition to the Tampa office, content moderation was done at a Cognizant office in Phoenix, Arizona.

Rather than monitor sites for offensive content, the company plans to focus on developing algorithms to automate and reduce the amount of objectionable content posted on clients' sites.

On the other side of the bay, BEMC LLC announced it will begin laying off 131 restaurant workers Jan. 4 at Locale Market and Farm Table Cucina in The Mall at Sundial, 153 2nd Ave. N., St. Petersburg.

Sundial developer Bill Edwards announced that the developers of Armature Works in Tampa will move into the 25,000-square-foot food hall now occupied by Locale Market and Farm Table Cucina.

US Laboratories will close its blood-testing laboratory at 5501 49th St. N. in St. Petersburg and lay off 71 workers by Dec. 31. The company is also closing a lab in Dania Beach, impacting 102 employees in all.

As part of a bankruptcy reorganization, US Laboratories is now part of the TridentCare health care company based in Maryland.

Another 482 people will lose their jobs between Feb. 9 and March 27 from Alorica's call center at 111 U.S. 301 S. near Brandon.

Alorica is also closing its call center in Sunrise, eliminating 216 jobs by Dec. 31.

The customer service management and support company is based in Irvine, California. It has more than 100,000 employees in 120 locations across 14 countries.