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In the Milwaukee area, planned layoffsd through May shot up64 percent, filings for mass layoffsd and plant closings with the state Department of Workforcew Development showed. Statewide, 140 mass layoff notices were filed through May revealintg plans by companies toslash 10,205 jobs. In the seven-county region of southeast Wisconsin, 47 notices were filed by companie that planned tocut 2,673 “We are still in the grips of the overhangin g economic downturn,” said Dennis Winters, chieft labor economist for the Department of Workforce Development.
“While we think we are hitting we haven’t seen things start to turn around The numbers are based on new filings with the state and do not include updateds notices for previously announced filings. Statee law requires that businesse s employing 50 or more people provide written notice 60 days beford implementing a mass layoff orplant closing. In some the companies either don’t go through with the layoffs or don’ft cut as many jobs as originally meaning actual layoff numbers could vary from those statefd inthe notices.
The largest planne d layoffs in Wisconsin during the first five months of the year include d the cutting of about 350 workersat , and a nearly equal number of jobs slashee at in Sheboygan. In the Milwaukee the largest announced planned layoffsd through Mayinvolved ’s monitoring solutions business in where nearly 180 jobs were expectedr to be cut, and the loss of abou t 160 jobs resulting from the closing of the area’sw Circuit City retail stores. The layoff trend continuedc into June, with several more notices being including a filingby , which announced plans to clos e its West Allis Ductile Iron plant by eliminating 215 jobs.
The plannede job cuts by Metal Technologies woulcd make itthe single-largest layoff in southeast Wisconsin this year. Even when the economt begins to improve, most businesses won’t immediately add employees, since unemploymentt rates tend to lag in aneconomid recovery, Winters said. Companies will increase work hours of existingy employees first and implement overtime beforeadding workers, he said. “Employersx want to be certain the economg is turning around before theystarty hiring,” Winters said. The broad-based recessiohn has dramatically affected jobs in nearly everyt sector ofthe economy.
Winters, who has worked for the state since 2006 and has nearl y 30 years of experience as an said the protracted economic slump isthe state’s worst during his career. “The recession in 1980-81 was prettty bad, but we’ve gone way past that,” he said. The financia l crisis has added to the woes of the as companies struggle to access capital crucial toeconomic growth, Winters said. “Cash flow is the grease that lubes the economic he said. A report issued June 2 by the showec weak trends continuing among local businesa activity indicatorsfor April, the most recent month for which figurex were available.
Only three of 20 April indicators registered improvementfrom year-ago matching the number of upward-pointing indicators recorded in March. “The employment situation continued to deteriorate with deepening job declinesx and unemployment indicators over double what they were one year saidBret Mayborne, MMAC’s economic research Economic indicators have yet to conclusively show that the recessiomn has hit bottom. “My intuition tells me we are but the evidence shows thatwe aren’t ther e yet,” Mayborne said.