A year ago, Kristi Leigh left her news anchoring job at two Toledo, Ohio TV stations for the Sinclair Broadcast Group-owned KMPH-TV in Fresno. On Wednesday, she announced on social media that she had been laid off.

“I am so grateful and thankful for everyone that I met here,” said Leigh in a video uploaded to her Facebook page. “We were facing such a difficult news cycle and news year, a difficult time for news in general, and I couldn’t have asked for better co-workers to work alongside in this process.”

Leigh joined the Fox affiliate last March and anchored its weekday evening newscasts.

She was one of the more than 400 employees laid off by Sinclair on March 3. The broadcasting company, which operates 186 television stations across 87 markets in the United States, reduced its workforce by roughly 5 percent.

In her Facebook video posted Wednesday, Leigh said she didn’t immediately share the news of her unemployment because she “wanted to sit with this for a minute,” but felt ready to talk about it after “being blown away” by the volume of concerned messages she received.

“This is the first time I’ve ever had to file for unemployment, or truly wonder what’s next,” Leigh continued in her post. “So I’m grateful that this is the very first time, but it’s also given me perspective on how difficult all that is.”

Leigh is a Toledo native and 2007 graduate of Bowling Green State University. Her farewell video message can be viewed at www.facebook.com/KristiLeighTV .

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