Butler and Franklin counties shared the top spot for most mass layoff notices sent to the state in May. Recent mass layoff notices from SMART Papers and Mohawk Fine Papers, Hamilton paper makers, and Pella Corp., a Fairfield entry door manufacturer, added to the county’s job losses. More than 818 jobs will be lost if SMART’s two additional rounds of layoffs in January and February of next year are included, based on a letter from the company.
Lucas County has had more than 860 jobs cuts with fewer WARN notices, including a single layoff of 652 people, according to Ohio Job and Family Services.
Hamilton County also had six notices of mass layoffs totaling 637 job cuts.
“There’s all kinds of reasons for issuing a WARN notice,” said Jeff Weber, executive director of the Workforce One Investment Board of Southwest Ohio.
The toughest are those with dislocated workers who have had their profession for decades and will have to reinvent their career path, Weber said. Unemployment, currently 8.9 percent in Butler County, stresses local governments that are already receiving less funding, he said.
“When people are not employed, they’re not paying an income tax and in most cases they’re also receiving some kind of support of service. So from the standpoint of the county, there’s less on the revenue side and more money going out as far as support of services,” he said.
He said in better economic times, there are always companies shutting down. But it was easier to reconnect dislocated workers with new opportunities.
“It still happens,” he said. “It’s also a case where the employers who are out there who have opportunities can be very discriminating to what they’re looking for.”
Under the WARN Act implemented in 1989, businesses with more than 100 employees have to send notices 60 days in advance of layoffs of 50 or more employees at a time in a 30-day period at a single site, according to Ben Johnson, Ohio Job and Family Services spokesman.
Notices this year in Butler County include:
• Kmart in Hamilton, one of six stores closed April 3 in five states, that had 79 layoffs.
• The closing of MISA Metals plants in Middletown May 7 after a joint venture with Worthington Steel that had 79 layoffs.
• Another 140 to 150 jobs to be cut through July by BAE Systems in West Chester Twp., one of several rounds of cuts the past two years. The WARN notice counted 125 jobs.
• CEVA Logistics US Inc. in West Chester Twp., which will close and cut 194 employees starting in June.
• Mohawk Fine Papers in Hamilton, which will close at the end of the year and cut 137 employees.
• SMART Papers in Hamilton, which said in October it was looking for a buyer, and also said it plans to start layoffs of 46 people in December. It has a total more than 200 employees.
There were a total four WARN notices from Butler County companies all of last year and 10 in 2009, according to Ohio Job and Family Services’ archives.
Johnson has said before more layoffs happen in smaller numbers.
Workforce One of Butler County has recorded 11 non-WARN layoffs with a total 620 jobs lost, including Manchester Inn in Middletown, Fairfield City Schools and ATC Aerospace in West Chester Twp., according to Kathleen Williams, business services representative for Workforce One. That includes a closure yet to happen of a Liz Claiborne distribution facility in West Chester Twp.
Layoff events include reductions or closings of any size at a single time that result in job cuts. An employer can be included multiple times.
Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2551 or clevingston@coxohio.com.
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