Dow Corning to lay off 500 employees

The actions are designed to better align the company's cost structure with the realities of today's volatile global economy. Dow Corning, a developer and manufacturer of silicon-based materials, currently employs approximately 12,000 people globally. The company is facing significant challenges including oversupplied markets, high raw materials costs and slowed growth in many regions. Comments from Robert D. Hansen, Dow Corning president and CEO: "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." "Dow Corning has 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."