BOISE, Idaho (AP) - MPC Corp., a southwestern Idaho computer maker, can guarantee no job security for employees unless it can stabilize finances, a spokesman said.

The Nampa-based company is in a state of "suspended animation" after laying off 200 workers at plants in Nampa and North Sioux City, S.D., in October followed by the delisting of shares, spokesman Michael Boss told the Idaho Statesman.

The company sells computer products and services to small and medium-sized businesses, the government and educational institutions. It's been hurt by shrinking demand and rising costs that it hasn't been able to offset by cuts to research and development spending.

"I think it is very safe to say until MPC puts its financial house in order, there is no real job security for anyone," Boss said. "We realize we are in a critical situation. It is almost going to be a day-to-day basis as to what solutions our management team comes up with."

Boss said the company has been beset by a manufacturing backlog and shipping interruptions.

Last week, the NYSE Alternext stock exchange, formerly the American Stock Exchange, announced MPC's shares were to be delisted - they had been trading at just pennies. It said MPC had fallen out of compliance with rules including stockholder equity requirements, and because the company was unlikely to rectify the matter with its plan.

The stock price has fallen fairly steadily since it traded at about $8 in August 2005.

Late last year, MPC signed an agreement to cooperate with Singapore-based Flextronics and purchased a manufacturing division from Gateway Computers with a facility in LaVergne, Tenn. Earlier this year, MPC announced it was shutting down the Tennessee plant and moving operations to Mexico, affecting some 160 workers.

The moves were intended to reduce costs and improve efficiency. So far, they've failed: MPC posted a net loss of $26.5 million in the six months ended June 30, after posting net losses totaling $70 million in the two previous full years.

The company has filed two reports with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission showing it's renegotiated a pact with Wells Fargo Bank, allowing the bank to buy MPC's accounts receivable and then collect the money.

"We are going through and working very closely with our manufacturing partner, Flextronix, and Wells Fargo, our bank, to try and figure out how we are going to put the company on a more stable financial footing," Boss said. "There are some operations that have been frozen. That's not a good situation, because it interferes with our getting our products out and it fuels a general level of anxiety about where the company is going."