National Business Wire (Dec 18) -- British chipmaker Arm Holdings Plc recently laid off more than 70 software engineers in China, according to Bloomberg.

Despite the layoffs, Arm will relocate some of the roles outside of China, Bloomberg reported on Monday.

The latest move, seems to reflect the downturn the semiconductor industry is facing due to low demand for electronics.

Of the laid-off employees, about 15 will take up different positions working on China-related projects, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.

The jobs cut are now filling with contract software engineers who have worked on projects for Arm's businesses around the world, another person said.

In a statement, the company said, "In order to ensure that the China Software Ecosystem can fully maximize the benefits of Arm performance and features, Arm is restructuring its China software engineering resources to focus on direct support for local developers."

Arm China acts as Arm's sales office in China. Earlier this year, Arm Chin laid off more than 100 employees, most of whom worked in R&D to develop new chip technologies for the Chinese market.

Arm has outsourced the work of supporting its Chinese customers to Arm China through a division called global services, which at one time had about 200 employees.

However, according to one of the people familiar with the matter, employees in the division will be laid off or relocated.