State agency shows layoffs continuing

The figures show that job loss announcements in the first few weeks of 2009 have unfortunately picked up where 2008 ended.

The Governor’s Dislocated Worker Task Force has recorded seven companies reporting layoffs or plant closures resulting in 641 job losses between Jan. 1 and Feb. 9.

Between January and December 2008, the task force worked with 133 companies to provide transition assistance to 10,570 workers facing unemployment.

“These numbers are not all-inclusive, as some companies do not report layoffs and closures to the Task Force,” noted a qualifying statement from the state agency.

Arkansas lost 18,800 jobs between December 2007 and December 2008, according to figures released Jan. 27 by the Arkansas Department of Workforce Services.

Of that annual dip, 10,000 of the jobs were lost from the manufacturing sector. Trade, transportation and utilities companies lost 7,100 jobs. The Leisure and hospitality (restaurant industry) sector decreased 2,000.

The Fort Smith region has been hit with many of the manufacturing layoffs, especially with the larger area manufacturers — Whirlpool, Rheem, Trane, Riverside Furniture — connected to the ailing national housing sector.

“Specifically, in Fort Smith, I would expect the trends in appliance-related employment to continue,” said Jeff Collins, an economist with Springdale-based Streetsmart Data (at right). “Domestic appliance manufacturers are and have been affected by international competition and outsourcing. These long-term trends are really the underlying factors affecting redistribution of production capacity. The housing downturn will exacerbate pre-existing trends and accelerate deterioration of domestic production.”