Canon U.S.A. cuts a dozen jobs on LI

Canon U.S.A. Inc., the Lake Success-based U.S. headquarters of the Japanese company, laid off about a dozen employees on Long Island this week, the company said in a statement Wednesday.

The digital-imaging company issued the statement in response to questions from Newsday about the job losses.

Canon said the cuts totaled about 70 nationwide and attributed the cutbacks to the economy.

"Like any business, we sometimes need to make changes to our cost infrastructure, especially during challenging economic times," the statement said.

"As such, we have had to make the very difficult decision to reconfigure certain areas of our business to best position them for future success, and this adjustment resulted in a loss of staff positions. This job loss, which is spread amongst various locations throughout the U.S., effected about 70 positions in total, including about a dozen on Long Island."

Canon, which has about 1,200 employees on Long Island, declined to say whether it planned more layoffs, a spokesperson said.

It plans to move into a Melville facility currently under construction by the end of 2012, and has said that its workforce will grow to more than 2,000 employees in the new building.