Posted Thursday, July 26, 2012 --- 2:34 p.m.

NEENAH, Wis. (AP) -- Contract electronics manufacturer Plexus Corp. has laid off 116 employees in the Appleton area.

Half of the layoffs are fulltime salaried employees and half are temporary workers.

Plexus reported strong third-quarter earnings last week. But the company made the layoffs this week in response to a decrease in customer orders.

Senior vice president and chief financial officer Ginger Jones tells The Post-Crescent that while the layoffs are unfortunate, they are "a small percentage" of the company's headcount in the Fox Cities.

Jones says the local overall workforce is about 2,000. The layoffs were at one of the company's two sites in the Appleton area, but Jones did not specify which.

The layoff did not require the company to file a WARN notice with the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development.

Copyright 2012. The Associated Press.