Washington Mutual's cost-cutting efforts sliced close to home Tuesday, when the thrift notified 850 call-center workers in Bothell that their jobs would be gone by fall.

The company also gave layoff notices to 550 call-center workers in Jacksonville, Fla.

WaMu is moving those functions to less-expensive locations — in Milwaukee, upstate New York and Manila, Philippines.

The Bothell call center is in Canyon Park, where workers have been talking for months about possible large-scale layoffs. WaMu laid off about 100 workers there last month.

The company will keep about 100 workers in Bothell, spokeswoman Darcy Donahoe-Wilmot said. An unspecified number of jobs will be moved to Bothell later.

WaMu continues to add management-level positions in Seattle, Donahoe-Wilmot said. As of a few months ago, it had 7,700 employees in King County.

The nation's largest thrift is sending jobs overseas and to lower-cost U.S. cities to cut costs.

In January, Chief Executive Kerry Killinger said the company would add about 4,400 jobs in foreign countries over the next couple years. At that time, about 1,600 people worked for WaMu through vendors in Canada, India and the Philippines.

Since then, WaMu has laid off 1,000 call-center workers in Chatsworth, Calif., sending their jobs to San Antonio and Costa Rica.

WaMu also announced plans to cut 2,500 jobs as it closes home-loan support offices in California, Oregon, Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan, Pennsylvania and South Carolina.

WaMu stock fell 42 cents Tuesday to $44.98 a share. It is up about 6 percent for the year.

Melissa Allison: 206-464-3312 or mallison@seattletimes.com

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