Toray Composites and Tool Gauge add to growing list of aerospace industry layoffs
More layoffs involving local aerospace suppliers came to light Friday, via the state Employment Security Department.
All point to the continued downturn of the aerospace industry and reduced demand for new planes during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tool Gauge and Machine Works in Tacoma has cut 59 workers from its ranks in permanent layoffs issued June 17, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification filed with the state.
Toray Composite Materials America in the Frederickson industrial area announced permanent layoffs for 146 workers set to take effect Aug. 8, according to its WARN alert also issued through the state ESD.
In April, Toray announced a temporary layoff of 361 workers. At that time, Tool Gauge also had initially announced layoffs but reversed course to retain its workers after receiving additional unexpected orders.
The layoffs follow cuts announced this week by another regional employer, Sekisui Aerospace, which eliminated 111 workers from its payroll as of June 12, according to its WARN filing.
All of these follow the massive layoffs of thousands announced recently by The Boeing Co.
Boeing last month announced involuntary layoffs of approximately 6,770 workers nationwide, the majority of whom are set to leave the company July 31. That’s in addition to about 5,520 workers approved for voluntary layoffs.
Of those totals, 5,798 Boeing workers in Washington state were among the July 31 involuntary layoff group.
During the week ending June 13, there were 29,028 initial regular unemployment claims filed with the state, down 2.3 percent from the previous week.
Pierce County’s initial regular claims filed decreased from 3,703 to 3,582 down 3 percent from the previous week.
In ESD’s tally of claims by industry, 3,671 regular initial claims tied to the manufacturing sector were filed statewide last week, up 58 percent from the previous week.
Amid the current downturn, airlines themselves are feeling the pinch of fewer people traveling by air and fewer flights overall.
In the most recent data provided on Sea-Tac’s website, the airport was seeing average daily volume of TSA screened passengers at 10,600, down 83 percent from same time last year.
