UPDATE: Two area aerospace companies announce temporary layoffs, one reverses layoff plan
This story has been updated.
Three area aerospace suppliers filed layoff notices with the state’s Employment Security Department on Monday, but one later reversed its decision.
Toray Composite Materials America issued temporary layoffs to 361 on April 9, according to the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notifications posted by ESD.
LMI Aerospace in Auburn also announced temporary layoffs affecting 74 starting April 13. Another site division in Everett listed 25 affected by layoffs at that location.
Tool Gauge, which originally announced layoffs at its Tacoma site on Monday, told The News Tribune on Tuesday it no longer had plans for layoffs.
According to Shannon Little, marketing manager for Tool Gauge, the company is “no longer temporarily laying off employees. All employees will be back on April 16th and we will be fully functional.”
Tool Gauge general manager Jim Lee told The Puget Sound Business Journal on Monday that since that notice was filed, the company had received additional unexpected orders for airplane parts.
Tool Gauge temporarily shut down after the governor’s March 25 stay-at-home order and had planned to bring some workers back April 16.
Frederickson’s Toray also voluntarily shut down its plant in late March and had planned to resume operations April 8.
Boeing itself has seen reductions and shutdowns amid the pandemic and the slowing of air travel. It did announce a partial restart for some sites to begin Monday.
More than 170,000 workers filed new unemployment claims last week, with the state’s total now at nearly a half-million since mid-March and the start of business shutdowns and limited operations in response to the coronavirus outbreak.
In Pierce County, 22,379 people filed claims last week, slightly more than the previous weeks’ total of 22,145. Cumulative over the past three weeks, about 18 percent of Pierce County’s workforce had filed claims for jobless benefits.
Monday’s layoffs come amid part of the upswing in temporary job cuts ESD director Suzi LeVine predicted last week.
LeVine said she expected claims to surge in the coming weeks as previously ineligible employees — such as independent contractors and part-time employees, could begin to apply for benefits under the expansion of unemployment benefits passed by Congress.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
This story was originally published April 14, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
