Nokia cuts 250 jobs in Illinois

Nokia Networks, which makes telecom gear for wireless phone service providers, is laying off several hundred workers in the Chicago area.

A total of 500 workers could be laid off by year-end, as cutbacks and consolidation continue to erode Chicago’s once-dominant base of wireless-networking hardware talent.

The company told 250 workers in Naperville on Sept. 7 that they were losing their jobs. It expects to lay off another 250 by year-end, according to a source familiar with the layoffs.

Nokia acknowledged it’s eliminating jobs but declined to say how many. “Following the acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent in 2016, Nokia announced a global synergy and transformation program that runs until the end of 2018, and as part of that program we have, indeed, reduced headcount in Illinois,” a spokesman said.

Through a series of acquisitions over the past several years, Nokia ended up with the assets and employees of Motorola, Alcatel and Lucent Technologies, the big employers that once made Chicago one of the world’s largest centers for wireless-networking equipment. Motorola’s wireless-equipment business, based in Arlington Heights, was sold to Nokia Siemens in 2011 for $975 million as part of the breakup of Motorola. Two years later, Nokia bought out Siemens from the joint venture. It then bought Alcatel-Lucent in 2016. Nokia consolidated workers at the former Alcatel-Lucent headquarters in Naperville, where it employed about 1,800 workers two years ago.

Alcatel bought Lucent Technologies, which had a large Lisle campus, in 2006. A decade ago, Alcatel-Lucent had about 4,000 employees in the western suburbs. In 2001, the two companies employed more than 10,000 workers combined.