WARN Act mass layoff and plant closure notices in Delaware City, Delaware, updated daily.
Workers affected by industry sector
| Company | City | Employees | Notice Date | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Formosa Plastics Corp., USA | Delaware City | 99 | 2018-07-25 | |
| Valero Delaware City Refinery | Delaware City | 550 | 2009-11-20 | |
| Valero Delaware City | Delaware City | 0 | 2009-09-14 |
# Economic Analysis: The Layoff Landscape in Delaware City, Delaware
Delaware City faces a concentrated but historically episodic layoff pattern, with 649 workers affected across just three WARN notices since 2009. While this represents a modest total compared to larger industrial centers, the layoffs carry outsized significance for a city of Delaware City's size, where the affected workforce constitutes a meaningful portion of the local employment base. The three notices span a decade, revealing not a sustained crisis but rather discrete shock events tied to specific facilities and operational decisions at major industrial employers.
The layoff data underscores Delaware City's character as a manufacturing and petrochemical hub. The 649 affected workers reflect the economic vulnerability inherent in communities dependent on large-scale industrial operations, where single facility decisions can displace hundreds of workers simultaneously. This concentration of employment risk distinguishes Delaware City from more economically diversified communities and shapes the urgency and scale of workforce adjustment challenges.
The Valero Delaware City Refinery dominates the layoff profile, accounting for 550 of the 649 affected workers—approximately 85 percent of all displacement. This single facility's workforce decisions define Delaware City's recent layoff history. Valero Delaware City, listed as a separate filer with zero affected workers, likely represents a corporate entity designation or notice classification rather than a distinct operational facility, suggesting administrative complexity in how WARN notices are filed and categorized.
The Valero Delaware City Refinery filed one notice affecting 550 workers, with this displacement concentrated in 2009. That year represented the post-financial crisis environment when refineries nationwide faced demand destruction and operational restructuring. Refinery economics depend heavily on crude oil throughput and refined product demand; the 2008-2009 recession created severe headwinds across the sector. For Delaware City, this meant Valero management made decisive cuts to workforce capacity rather than maintaining payroll through the downturn.
Refinery operations typically employ workers across multiple skill categories—from skilled trades and technicians to laborers and administrative staff. A reduction of 550 workers likely reflected both temporary furloughs and permanent separations, with the WARN process capturing the most significant displacements. The 2009 timeline suggests this was responsive to demand collapse rather than technological displacement or facility closure, meaning rehiring became possible once markets stabilized.
Manufacturing accounts for the sole industry classification in the dataset, with Formosa Plastics Corp., USA filing one notice affecting 99 workers. This represents a secondary but significant employment disruption distinct from the refinery's scale. Formosa Plastics Corp., USA operates chemical production facilities and is a major plastics manufacturer, making its operations complementary to the refining sector—refineries produce chemical feedstocks that plastics manufacturers process.
The 99-worker reduction from Formosa Plastics occurred in 2018, a decade after the refinery's major layoff. This timing is notable: the 2018 displacement happened during an economic expansion period, suggesting internal operational or strategic decisions rather than macroeconomic recession. Possible drivers include automation investments, product line consolidation, or shifting production to other Formosa facilities elsewhere.
The combination of refinery and plastics manufacturing employment creates a vertically integrated local economy where upstream petrochemical production feeds downstream manufacturing. This integration creates efficiency benefits but also concentrates industry risk—downturns or restructuring in refining cascade through the supply chain.
The temporal distribution of WARN notices reveals a bifurcated pattern: two notices in 2009 and one notice in 2018, with no notices in the nine-year interval between 2009 and 2018. This distribution does not indicate a worsening or improving trend but rather event-driven displacement concentrated in specific years.
The 2009 clustering reflects the Great Recession's industrial impact, when major manufacturing and refining operations made rapid workforce adjustments. That two notices filed in a single year affected 550 and 99 workers respectively, suggesting Delaware City absorbed significant displacement pressure in that single calendar year. The subsequent nine-year quiet period does not necessarily indicate economic stability; rather, it suggests surviving employers managed workforce adjustments through mechanisms other than mass layoffs, such as attrition, reduced hiring, or operating rate adjustments without formal separations.
The 2018 single notice resumes WARN filings but at a smaller scale than 2009, suggesting either more contained operational changes or management's greater confidence in maintaining workforce stability. Without notices filed between 2010 and 2017, the local economy entered a recovery phase, though growth was likely constrained by industrial sector limitations and the legacy effects of earlier disruptions.
For a city of Delaware City's population, the displacement of 649 workers represents a substantial economic shock with multiplier effects extending through local retail, services, and housing markets. Each displaced manufacturing or refinery worker typically supports additional employment in local supply chains, services, and commerce. A workforce reduction of this magnitude ripples through grocery stores, restaurants, automotive services, and other business dependent on stable local employment.
The skill profile of affected workers matters significantly for reemployment prospects. Refinery workers and chemical plant technicians possess specialized training and often earn wages substantially above community averages. Displacement of 550 refinery workers created high-wage job losses that displaced workers struggled to replace in local markets. Some likely secured comparable employment at other refineries or chemical plants, but relocation was common. The resulting brain drain and skill loss affected community tax bases and long-term economic capacity.
The 99-worker Formosa Plastics reduction, occurring nine years after the refinery layoffs, suggested some workers may have still been adjusting from earlier displacements. Cumulative layoff effects can devastate communities where industrial employers repeatedly reduce workforce, even if individual reductions are manageable in isolation.
Delaware City's three WARN notices represent a snapshot of the state's industrial restructuring. Delaware's economy depends heavily on petrochemical refining, chemical manufacturing, and automotive-related production. Delaware City, home to major refinery capacity, carries particular weight in state employment. The concentration of layoffs in petrochemical-adjacent industries reflects Delaware's economic specialization and the global forces reshaping these sectors through automation, efficiency improvements, and shifting demand patterns.
The absence of WARN notices filed since 2018 may indicate stabilization in these major employers or alternatively suggest that current restructuring occurs through mechanisms that evade WARN notice requirements—a possibility worth monitoring as employment markets evolve.
Get Delaware City Layoff Alerts
Free daily alerts for WARN Act filings in Delaware.
