As farmland owners and investors wait for lower interest rates, they have a much different wait than thousands of Midwest workers: those workers wait to find out if they can return to their old job, or if they need a new one. And will that future opportunity remain in agriculture?
The list of job losses connected to agriculture seems to grow by the week, especially in Iowa. Before layoffs began, the state had employed about 32,000 people in farm machinery and equipment manufacturing. But not any longer.
Both of those sectors have dealt with job cuts as producers anticipate farmers scaling back purchasing in light of lower commodity prices, higher input costs, smaller direct federal government payments, and elevated inflation.
A few thousand workers have already been impacted by reductions in the state.
RELATED: Strauss Brands and Logistics -- a natural meat packaging company in Franklin, Wisconsin – announced plans to start laying off 70 workers this month. The grass-fed product line would move to Illinois. This Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has details about job cuts in Wisconsin.
Chances are that by year’s end, there will be more people familiar with “WARN.” That is the acronym for the Federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act.
The Act requires “employers with 100 or more employees to give 60 calendar day written notice when there is a plant closing or mass layoff. This protects workers, their families, and communities. The notice provides employees time to prepare for the potential loss of their jobs, find new employment, and, if necessary, enroll in training,” according to the Iowa Workforce Development website.
The Iowa WARN “ensures that employers with 25 or more employees give notice 30 calendar days in advance of a plant closure or mass layoff.
Iowa WARN has been a metaphorical flashing red light as the website has been inundated with notices of mass layoffs duethe current downturn in the agricultural industry, along with the continued dip expected in the near future.
RELATED: Axios details the Iowa companies that are reducing jobs due to the economic projections in the agricultural sector. Read that here.
Some of the cuts take effect within the next month, while others aren’t scheduled to take place until December.
John Deere has been the largest farm-related company in the region to announce job reductions with announcements of approximately 1,500 positions in Iowa and Illinois.
RELATED: Mike Wiles -- known as “Tractor Mike,” a popular creator on YouTube -- laid out John Deere’s job cuts and some of the reasons behind them. Watch that here.
Bridgestone in Des Moines announced 216 cuts for employees involved in its farm tire production.
And Kinze Manufacturing in Williamsburg laid off nearly 200 people who were part of the company’s planter and grain cart manufacturing operations.
Here is a sample of the job cuts that have been announced and the different products that have been produced at the facilities:
--Myers Industries, Inc., which makes plastic and metal products for industries including agriculture, announced that it would eliminate 60 jobs effective December 15th. The company plans to close its plant in Atlantic.
--Gates Corp., which has produced hydraulic hoses for John Deere, alerted state authorities that it plans to shut down its plant in Newton in November and cut 41 workers. The layoffs are spread out over three weeks.
--Tyson Foods announced that it will lay off its final five employees in Perry as it shuts down the plant there. The total cuts will be approximately 1,300.
