The Stories That Shaped 2008, No. 3: Ozarks not immune to layoffs

For Ozarks job seekers, finding work has been hampered by a spate of layoffs that have hit the region throughout 2008, and signals are mixed as to what 2009 may hold.

The largest local layoff by a single company in 2008 came after Kansas-based Cargill Value Added Meats bought Springfield-based Willow Brook Foods and shut down its two Springfield plants in September.

The move left nearly 800 employees without work.

In that same sector, about 465 people were laid off in October when Petit Jean's poultry-processing plant in Buffalo was shut down.

Illinois-based ATC Technology Corp., which operates locally as Aaron's Automotive Products Inc., announced Dec. 9 that it would eliminate 184 hourly and salaried positions at its drivetrain manufacturing facility in Springfield in 2009 and move its production lines to Oklahoma City as part of corporate restructuring.

"There's been a slowdown in the manufacturing sector. We know that. And construction is very tough right now," said Bill Dowling, coordinator for the Ozarks region of Missouri Career Center.

Economic pressures in construction - in the form of a shrinking work backlog - led to two rounds of job cuts equaling one-third of the staff at Springfield-based architecture and engineering firm Butler, Rosenbury & Partners Inc.

Throughout the year, other sectors fell prey.

Springfield-based Mid-Missouri Bank in early December announced that it laid off about 13.5 percent of its staff, a mix of 34 full- and part-time employees.

Florida-based Bluegreen Corp. announced in November that it would cut 104 jobs in Branson in January, Dowling said, noting that Missouri Career Center staff will visit with affected workers there.

Skaggs Community Health Center in Branson announced Dec. 12 that it had cut 11 full-time positions and would reduce salaries by 10 percent for administrators, including CEO Stephen M. Erixon.

And on Dec. 16, the 400 employees of Wyndham Vacation Ownership were notified that the company's Springfield call center would close in February, a move that spokeswoman Liz Hutchison said is part of Wyndham Worldwide's restructuring effort to cut dependence on asset-backed securities.

Silver linings

There are, however, a few bright spots on the horizon.

"We have 400-plus various companies that are currently hiring in our area and have job openings listed on our system," Dowling said, though he noted that there were twice as many companies with job postings at the same time in 2007.

Among those companies looking for employees is Teletech, which Dowling said is already working with the Missouri Career Center for 50 hires that the Colorado-based business process outsourcing company expects to make in February.

And in Pleasant Hope, a recently announced partnership between Tai Shin Foods USA and Jefferson City-based Heritage Acres Foods LLC is aimed at reviving a pork-processing plant in the small Polk County town. Heritage Acres intends to have the plant up and running by January, with plans for 70 to 100 employees by spring.

Also ahead is the anticipated spring opening of FedEx Freight's $10 million distribution facility in Partnership Industrial West. According to the company's Enhanced Enterprise Zone application to the Missouri Department of Economic Development, the company could add as many as 50 jobs by 2013.

Elsewhere in PIC West, an expansion is under way at Northstar Battery that would double its work force and add 400 additional employees, and developments by a trio of companies - Crosstech Construction Products, Green Seed Co. and Seltzer Cos. - are bringing an estimated total of 75 jobs to the market.

Still, Dowling said it's important that job seekers be realistic - and open-minded - about wage expectations. "I've had people come in and say 'I'm not willing to take a job for less than $14 an hour,'" Dowling said. "Well, that may have been the case of what (they) were making when (they) were laid off, but honestly, right now in this economy ... six months from now when you don't have a job still, you may want to rethink that."