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Valley sees high number of layoffs this year
By Kalea Hall
YOUNGSTOWN
The year started with many bright spots in the Mahoning Valley.
Unemployment was down and layoffs weren’t making headlines.
Now, the Valley’s unemployment rate is slightly up, from 5.6 percent in November 2014 to 5.8 percent last month, and another group of workers at a local plant were laid off last week.
“We haven’t seen these layoffs in years,” said Bert Cene, director of the Mahoning and Columbiana Training Association.
MCTA helps workers find jobs and helps employers find employees.
This year, Cene said the organization has seen layoffs at Tamarkin, Giant Eagle’s former support center in Austintown, of 196; the Community Corrections Association of 185; Vallourec Star, a plant that makes steel pipe for the oil and gas industry, of 168; Parker Hannifin hydraulic gear pump plant of 150; Exal, an aluminum can maker, of 40; and Exterran, a fabrication plant for equipment used in the oil and gas industry, announced layoffs of 68 last week.
Not all the layoffs have occurred yet, but they were all announced this year. MCTA has worked with a majority of the companies’ employees to help them find new work.
“That’s a lot of people,” Cene said.
Two plants – Tamarkin and Parker Hannifin – announced complete closures. Vallourec Star made several workforce reductions, and Exterran will close at the end of March until an undetermined date.
Exterran, Vallourec Star and Parker Hannifin were all affected by the dramatic drop in the cost for a barrel of oil.
In June 2014, the cost per barrel was $100 or more. On Dec. 21, the cost for a barrel was about $34, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
“It really is because the market is down,” Cene said of the layoffs related to oil and gas.
On Tuesday, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services released the Valley’s unemployment figures for November. In Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties, the number of employed went from 238,200 to 235,400 and the number of unemployed rose from 14,200 to 14,500.
“It was very unusually weak,” said George Zeller, a Cleveland-based economist. “When was the last time we had all three counties increase year over year?”
Zeller does see that there is growth in the area and the state, but the growth is too slow and has been behind the national average for 37 straight months.
Ohio’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.5 percent in November 2015, up from 4.4 percent in October. Ohio’s nonagricultural wage and salary employment increased 9,900 over the month, from a revised 5,427,100 in October to 5,437,000 in November 2015.
Ohio’s nonagricultural wage and salary employment increased 9,900 over the month, from a revised 5,427,100 in October to 5,437,000 in November 2015.
Although there were job gains in construction, goods-producing industries and others, there was a loss of 600 jobs in manufacturing, which wasn’t good for the Valley, Zeller said.
“This is clearly the worst month we have had in years on a monthly basis for the Valley,” Zeller said.