Iowa Layoffs — September 2008

Employers in Iowa submitted 3 WARN Act notices in September 2008, putting at risk an estimated 362 workers — up substantially from August and up 76% versus September 2007. The average filing covered 121 workers, with 1 closure among the notices.

Industry Breakdown

Industry	Notices	Workers
Finance & Insurance	1	5

The Finance & Insurance sector emerged as the hardest-hit sector with 5 workers across 1 notice.

Geographic Hotspots

County	Notices	Workers
Linn	1	180
Polk	1	177
Marshall	1	5

Linn saw the most concentrated activity, accounting for 50% of all affected workers with 180 workers across 1 notices.

City	Notices	Workers
Cedar Rapids	1	180
Des Moines	1	177
Marshalltown	1	5

Layoff Type Analysis

Type	Notices	Workers
Closure	1	180
Layoff	1	177

Closures accounted for 50% of affected workers, while the majority of filings were layoffs rather than permanent shutdowns.

Largest Layoffs

Company	City	Workers	Type	Date
Norwood Promotional Products	Cedar Rapids	180	Closure	2008-09-26
Citi	Des Moines	177	Layoff	2008-09-29
Citizens Bank Check Encoding	Marshalltown	5		2008-09-09

Topping the list was Norwood Promotional Products at its Cedar Rapids facility, reporting 180 affected workers. Citi followed with 177 workers.

Trend & Outlook

This marks the third consecutive month of rising layoff activity.

These figures highlight mounting pressure on the Iowa labor market, with activity running above both recent and year-ago benchmarks. The Finance & Insurance sector warrants close attention heading into the next period.

This analysis is based on official WARN Act filings reported by Iowa. The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act requires employers with 100+ employees to provide 60-day advance notice of mass layoffs and plant closings. Data is updated daily by WARN Firehose. View all Iowa WARN notices, browse layoffs by state, or download the full dataset.