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The city of Hayward will eliminate more than a dozen staff and management jobs in its public works and economic-development departments as it looks to close a budget gap.

The city sent out 16 layoff notices Tuesday, according to City Manager Greg Jones, with the cuts effective Oct. 1. The layoffs total less than 2 percent of the city’s 879-person staff.

The layoffs comes as Hayward is trying to meet a savings target of $6.5 million so that it does not have to dip into reserves to meet its budget, as it did last year, Jones said. Hayward’s general fund is about $12 million, Jones said.

Hayward’s budget has taken a hit from the slumping real estate market and the poor state of the economy. Real property transfer taxes have been halved, to about $4.5 million, from $9 million, Jones said, while sales taxes are flat.

“Layoffs are always a last resort,” Jones said. The city took other measures to meet its savings target, including freezing 32 vacant positions, eliminating positions through retirement and attrition, and meeting with firefighter and police bargaining groups payday loans in one hour. Jones said the number of layoffs may be reduced between now and October through attrition.

Hayward’s layoffs bring to more than 500 the number of layoffs announced or enacted in Alameda County since the beginning of the third quarter.

Four corporations with operations or headquarters in Hayward — Kosan Biosciences, Lucky Stores, Mervyns LLC and Shutterfly — have warned the county of layoffs or closures.

The city of Alameda in mid-August said it planned to lay off 20 employees in its arts and recreation division, according to the Alameda County Workforce Investment Board, and Sun Microsystems Inc. also warned the county it would lay off about a dozen employees in Pleasanton next week. Mervyns LLC, which is operating under bankruptcy protection, also warned the county it lay off 96 in Livermore in November. Mervyns is closing its Livermore location.

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