An Unexpected Company is Now Laying Off Hundreds in Kentucky

July 10, 2024

An unexpected company is now laying off hundreds in Kentucky after it announced that is will permanently close a plant.

Daramic, the world’s leading manufacturer and supplier of battery separators for automotive, industrial, and specialty applications, has advised that it will permanently close a plant in Owensboro.

Daramic has filed a WARN notice with the Kentucky Career Center advising that a total of 156 staff members at the plant will lose their jobs on September 6.

However, Daramic isn’t the only company to announce of upcoming layoffs in Kentucky this year.

FurHaven Pet Products also filed a WARN notice with the Kentucky Career Center advising that a total of 148 staff members will lose their jobs by August.

“On behalf of FurHaven Pet Products, Inc. (the “Company”), this letter is to notify you that the Company will permanently close its entire plant located at 7130 New Buffington Road, Suite 400, Florence, Kentucky 41042,” the company said.

Other layoffs in Kentucky include:

HDT Global. 94 job cuts by 12/31.
WHEELS UP. 40 job cuts on 6/16.
Quanex Building Products. 140 job cuts on 6/7.

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Also Read: Retirees Will Now Receive More Money For Social Security

Other Economy News Today

Applications for unemployment benefits now surge to new highs, a sign that the white-hot labor market is starting to cool off.

First-time applications for unemployment benefits rose last week to 231,000, the highest level since August, per CNN.

Thursday’s data also showed that the number of continuing claims, or applications from people who have filed for unemployment for at least one week, was 1.78 million.

That’s an increase of 17,000 from the prior week, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The latest numbers come less than a week after the monthly jobs report showed the US economy added just 175,000 positions in April, less than economists expected and a steep drop-off from prior months.

US employers have now added an average of 245,500 jobs per month, versus 2023’s 251,000-per-month average.

Still, hiring remains strong. Although the unemployment rate ticked up to 3.9% last month, it’s the 27th consecutive month that the jobless rate has held under 4%, matching a streak last seen in the late 1960s.

Weekly jobless claims data tends to be volatile but, while one week’s worth of data “does not a trend make,” said Chris Rupkey, chief economist at Fwdbonds.

“We can no longer be sure that calm seas lie ahead for the US economy if today’s weekly jobless claims are any indication.”

“Company layoffs are picking up, hinting at caution on the part of companies as they weigh the outlook for the second half of the year,” he wrote in a note Thursday.

The Federal Reserve has been battling inflation by raising its key lending rate in the hopes of slowing the economy.

While the labor market has so far resisted those efforts, remaining white hot for the past 18 months despite 11 rate hikes from the central bank, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said last week that demand has “cooled from its extremely high level of a couple of years ago.”

Ian Shepherdson at Pantheon Economics said in a note Thursday: “We’d need to see at least a month of elevated readings to convince us that the trend really has turned.”

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Also Read: A Giant Company Now Announces Unexpected Layoffs in Virginia

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