Trane updates Fort Smith job cut plans; 205 jobs lost by year end

The Trane manufacturing plant in Fort Smith will see 123 jobs cuts no later than Aug. 2, according to a letter sent Wednesday (June 23) from Trane officials to the city of Fort Smith.

Another 76 layoffs will hit by September, with 6 layoffs planned in December, according to the note from Becky Steph, a human resources leader for Ingersoll Rand in Tyler, Texas.

The cuts presumably are part of a layoff plan the company first announced Feb. 19. However, Steph’s note was the first to suggest a permanent job loss.

“Based on the information currently available, the Company will permanently terminate approximately 123 employees at its Fort Smith facility on or about August 2, 2010. Additional layoffs are anticipated to occur in or about September, 2010 (approximately 76 employees), and in or about December, 2010 (approximately 6 employees),” according to the Trane statement received Wednesday by the city.

On Feb. 19 the company said 197 hourly and 15 salaried jobs would be cut by the end of 2010 as part of a production shift to a Trane plant in Florida. Prior to the Feb. 19 notice, Trane employed about 455 in Fort Smith (415 hourly and 40 salaried positions).

Trane’s plan could negate what was an emerging positive trend for manufacturing employment in the Fort Smith area.

Fort Smith’s metro area unemployment rate fell in April to 7.6%, which marked three consecutive months of declines since the rate peaked at 8.9% in January. The April report showed that manufacturing jobs held steady following a decline that began in early 2006 and leveled off in late 2009. The April report estimated 21,400 metro manufacturing jobs, down from the 21,500 from March 2010. The March report was the third straight month of job increases in the sector. Unfortunately, April manufacturing jobs were 3.6% fewer than in April 2009.

Fort Smith metro manufacturing employment has taken a big hit in the past decade. Employment in the sector is down 29.9% from a decade ago when January 2001 manufacturing employment stood at 30,700.

Also, Arkansas’ manufacturing employment rose from 164,400 in April to an estimated 165,300 in May, a gain of 0.54%. The number of manufacturing jobs is up 4.8% between January and May 2010. More encouraging is that the battered manufacturing sector in Arkansas had more jobs in the sector during May (165,300) than in May 2009 (164,900).