WARN Act mass layoff and plant closure notices in Harrington, Delaware, updated daily.
Workers affected by industry sector
| Company | City | Employees | Notice Date | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harrington Logistics, LLC | Harrington | 0 | 2025-03-31 | |
| Harrington Logistics, LLC | Harrington | 151 | 2025-03-31 | |
| Color Box, LLC/Georgia Pacific | Harrington | 95 | 2013-10-10 |
# Economic Analysis: Layoffs in Harrington, Delaware
Harrington, Delaware has experienced a concentrated wave of employment disruption over the past thirteen years, with 246 workers affected across three WARN notices filed between 2013 and 2025. While this figure may appear modest relative to larger metropolitan areas, the concentration of layoffs in a small city of approximately 3,800 residents represents a significant economic shock. The 246 affected workers constitute roughly 6.5 percent of Harrington's total population, suggesting that individual households and the local tax base have absorbed meaningful disruption.
The temporal clustering of these layoffs reveals a particularly acute situation in 2025, when two separate WARN notices eliminated employment for 190 workers—a sharp acceleration from the single 2013 notice affecting 56 workers. This recent surge indicates that Harrington's economic challenges have intensified rather than stabilized, warranting close attention from policymakers and workforce development officials tasked with supporting displaced workers.
Transportation and logistics operations have dominated Harrington's WARN activity, accounting for all 151 workers affected by the two notices filed by Harrington Logistics, LLC. This concentration underscores the city's economic dependency on a single industry sector and, more critically, on a single employer. Harrington Logistics, LLC represents the primary driver of recent workforce disruption, having filed notices in both 2013 and 2025.
The absence of detailed information regarding the causes of Harrington Logistics, LLC's layoffs limits conclusions about whether these reductions reflect cyclical downturns, automation investments, supply chain restructuring, or strategic business decisions. However, the fact that the same employer filed notices across a twelve-year span suggests that workforce reduction may represent an ongoing operational strategy rather than a one-time adjustment. Transportation and logistics firms increasingly rely on automation, route optimization software, and lean inventory management—innovations that systematically reduce labor requirements across the sector.
The concentration of 151 workers in transportation represents 61 percent of all WARN-affected employment in Harrington, making the city's economic health intimately tied to the fortunes of this single industry and, by extension, Harrington Logistics, LLC's business decisions.
Color Box, LLC/Georgia Pacific filed one WARN notice affecting 95 workers, representing 39 percent of total affected employment. This notice highlights Harrington's modest manufacturing footprint, specifically within packaging and paper products. The involvement of Georgia Pacific, a multinational subsidiary operating under the Color Box brand name, indicates that local manufacturing operations remain vulnerable to decisions made at corporate headquarters rather than by local management.
The manufacturing sector's 95 affected workers reveal a secondary but meaningful employment shock, suggesting that Harrington hosts both logistics and light manufacturing operations. The fact that Georgia Pacific, a major integrated forest products company, operates local facilities indicates some industrial capacity, though the workforce reduction notice suggests that these operations may be consolidating, relocating, or reducing capacity. Packaging manufacturers face intense pressure from e-commerce volatility, material cost fluctuations, and global competition—factors that can trigger rapid workforce adjustments when demand shifts or efficiency targets change.
The thirteen-year timeline reveals a troubling acceleration pattern. The 2013 WARN notice, affecting 56 workers through what appears to be an earlier action by Harrington Logistics, LLC, suggested a stable baseline level of economic churning. The decade-long quiet period from 2014 through 2024 might have indicated workforce stabilization or reduced pressure on local employers.
The return of WARN notices in 2025, affecting 190 workers across two separate notices, shatters that presumption. Rather than remaining dormant, major Harrington employers resumed workforce reductions at more than triple the 2013 scale. This pattern suggests that the factors driving the 2013 reduction have intensified, or that new pressures have emerged that simultaneously affect both transportation and manufacturing sectors.
The compressed timeline of 2025 notices—two filings in a single year—magnifies the community impact by concentrating employment loss temporally. Workers displaced from Harrington Logistics, LLC and Color Box, LLC/Georgia Pacific within the same calendar year face saturated local labor markets, compressed wage negotiations, and heightened competition for positions at remaining employers.
Harrington's local economy faces material headwinds from 246 job losses concentrated in two major private employers. The city's tax base faces revenue pressure as wage income supporting tax collection declines. Displaced workers will likely experience earnings reductions if forced to accept positions outside their previous fields or at lower-wage employers.
The presence of only two major employers filing WARN notices suggests limited labor market diversification. If these two firms represent the city's largest private employers—a reasonable assumption given their dominance in WARN filings—then Harrington's economic resilience depends on sectors other than transportation and manufacturing. However, no WARN notices from healthcare, retail, hospitality, or other service sectors appear in the recent data, suggesting either that these sectors employ far fewer workers or that they face different workforce dynamics.
Displaced workers aged 50 and older face particular challenges in manufacturing and logistics sectors, where physical demands and technological change can create barriers to re-employment at comparable wages. Younger displaced workers possess greater geographic mobility but may choose to relocate entirely rather than remain in a city with concentrated job losses among major employers.
Delaware's economy spans manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, financial services, and chemicals sectors concentrated in Wilmington and northern industrial corridors. Harrington, located in central Delaware, represents a secondary economic center dependent on logistics, agriculture-related services, and light manufacturing. The state's unemployment rate and broader economic health may not closely track Harrington's concentrated losses, meaning that state-level workforce programs may not adequately address local displacement.
The WARN filings in Harrington demonstrate that job losses extend beyond Delaware's northern industrial core, affecting communities with fewer alternative employers and less developed workforce support infrastructure. Regional comparison would require WARN data from similar-sized Delaware communities, but the 246 total affected workers place Harrington among the state's more significant recent layoff events.
The transportation sector's dominance in Harrington layoffs reflects national trends toward supply chain consolidation and automation, suggesting that these disruptions reflect structural economic forces rather than localized mismanagement. However, understanding whether Harrington Logistics, LLC serves regional or national supply chains would clarify whether future employment prospects depend on regional economic growth or national logistics trends.
Get Harrington Layoff Alerts
Free daily alerts for WARN Act filings in Delaware.
