Memory chip heavyweight Hynix Semiconductor Inc. announced plans to close down its only North American plant, located in Eugene, Oregon, in the next two months. The closure will result in the elimination of over 1,400 jobs. As of August 1, the first pink slips had already been handed out.

The closure of Hynix’s Eugene plant is the largest loss of jobs in Oregon this decade. Kim Jong-kap, chairman of the South Korean company, flew to Oregon to personally convey the news to the governor and the mayor of Eugene. The July 23 announcement apparently caught state and local officials by surprise.

Hynix, the second largest producer of memory chips in the world after Samsung Electronics, has been battered by the unusually steep decline in global prices for memory chips. The average price fell a dramatic 39 percent in 2007.

Laid off high-tech workers will find themselves job-hunting in an economy that is reeling from the collapse of the housing market and rising fuel prices. Over the last few years, two major high tech companies, Intel Corporation and Hewlett Packard, have downsized operations in Oregon.

Unemployment in Oregon currently stands at 5.5 percent, identical to the national level. However, losses in well-paid construction jobs, down 7,500 jobs since June 2007, have been balanced by gains in notoriously lower paying jobs in retail and the leisure and hospitality industry. June was the first month since May of 1996 that Oregon’s unemployment rate was equal to the national rate. In 2003, Oregon led the nation, and exceeded the national rate by 2 percent, with an 8.5 percent unemployment rate.