Oct 18, 2011. /Lesprom Network/. Hampton Affiliates has announced the layoff of about 80 employees at its Darrington, Washington, sawmill. The mill will reduce its operating schedule from 80 hours per week to 50 hours per week sometime in November, depending on customer commitments, as Random Lengths reported. A poor domestic lumber market and "exorbitant log costs" due to log exports going to China were cited by Hampton CEO Steve Zika. Hampton also recently laid off 80 employees and reduced hours at its stud mill in Randle, Washington. "We plan to operate all of our sawmills for the foreseeable future, albeit most at reduced schedules, and weather the storm until the U.S. housing market begins to recover," Zika said. "We also will continue to grow our business of exporting finished lumber products to a variety of Asian markets."