The following excerpt was from the January 15, 2013 edition of AnnArbor.com:
Ann Arbor-based information IT company ProQuest laid off about 40 employees on Tuesday, a spokeswoman confirmed.
Ah… I see my old employer is making some changes… These things always make empolyees nervoud, especially if that employee happens to lose their job. ProQuest just happens to own HeritageQuest Online.
At the same time, the company has 75 available positions in various departments, said spokeswoman Beth Dempsey.
“The bottom line is this: we are not decreasing our workforce,” Dempsey said.
“We’re in the information industry. It is an exceptionally competitive and dynamic industry. Really, you have to just constantly be shifting and making sure you’re giving your customers the best experience possible,” she continued.
ProQuest — which is headquartered on Eisenhower Parkway in Ann Arbor and has a facility on James L. Hart Parkway in Ypsilanti Township — employs 625 people in Washtenaw County.
The company scans and archives millions of documents, including newspapers, dissertations and literature collections. In 2010, the company moved into a 40,000-square-foot space in Ypsilanti Township where employees scan, index and iron print products to film them.
Dempsey said the job eliminations are positions across the U.S. and could not specify how many people were laid off in Washtenaw County.