WARN Act mass layoff and plant closure notices in Clearwater, Florida, updated daily.
Workers affected by industry sector
# Clearwater's Layoff Landscape: A Comprehensive Economic Analysis
Clearwater, Florida has experienced 71 WARN notices affecting 8,790 workers over a roughly 27-year period captured in this dataset, representing a significant but episodic pattern of workforce displacement in a city with approximately 150,000 residents. The average WARN notice in Clearwater affects 123.8 workers, slightly below national norms, suggesting that while Clearwater has experienced notable layoffs, they tend to be moderately scaled rather than dominated by single catastrophic mass-layoff events. However, this aggregate figure masks considerable volatility and concentration within specific years and sectors.
The most striking feature of Clearwater's layoff history is the dramatic clustering of notices in 2020, when 13 notices were filed affecting an unknown aggregate but clearly substantial portion of the workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic. This single year represents 18.3 percent of all notices filed over the entire dataset period, indicating that external economic shocks create pronounced dislocation in Clearwater's economy. The subsequent years show relative stabilization, with 2022, 2023, and 2024 each generating four notices—suggesting either structural adjustment to pandemic-era changes or normalization of a higher baseline for workforce instability in the post-pandemic era.
The layoff landscape in Clearwater is heavily concentrated among a relatively small set of major employers. BIC Graphic North America leads the list with three separate WARN notices affecting 327 workers across the span of the data, positioning this office products manufacturer as the single most disruptive employer for workforce stability. The company's repeated layoff filings suggest either cyclical workforce management or structural contraction in the graphic supplies industry—a sector facing persistent pressure from digital transformation and consolidation.
Healthcare represents the most significant layoff driver by both notice count and absolute worker impact. Columbia Clearwater Community Hospital filed one notice affecting 167 workers, while the Florida Department of Children & Families generated displacement for 350 workers. However, the most consequential single employer action came from the YMCA, which filed notices (appearing duplicated in the dataset as both "YMCA" and "Ymca") affecting 1,206 workers each. If these represent a single filing instance, the YMCA accounts for 13.7 percent of all displaced workers in Clearwater across the entire dataset—an extraordinary concentration of layoff impact in a nonprofit social services organization. This suggests either a massive organizational restructuring, facility consolidation, or membership/funding model shift within the regional YMCA operations.
The hospitality and accommodation sector, traditionally a linchpin of Central Florida's economy, shows moderate but concerning presence. Hooters III, Inc. generated two notices affecting 133 workers, while the Belleview Biltmore Resort and Sand Key Associates Limited Partnership dba Sheraton Sand Key Resort each filed single notices affecting 300 and 231 workers respectively. These three entities alone displaced 664 workers in the hospitality and accommodation sector, revealing vulnerability in what should theoretically be a resilient industry in the greater Tampa Bay region.
Manufacturing employers beyond BIC Graphic show persistent workforce instability. Metal Industries, Inc. filed two notices affecting 156 workers, while Medline Industries, Inc. and Unilever Manufacturing, Inc. each displaced 275 and 210 workers respectively. These manufacturers represent the industrial backbone that historically stabilized Clearwater's economy, yet their repeated or significant layoffs indicate structural challenges in production-based employment.
Healthcare emerges as the single largest displacement sector with 11 notices affecting 2,132 workers—24.2 percent of all displaced workers. This concentration is notable given healthcare's theoretical recession-resistance and essential nature. The large displacement from YMCA alone inflates these figures, but even excluding that outlier, healthcare remains heavily represented, suggesting that Clearwater's medical employers face persistent operational pressures, perhaps related to insurance reimbursement challenges, facility consolidations, or changes in service delivery models.
Manufacturing follows closely with 13 notices affecting 1,677 workers (19.1 percent). While the notice count exceeds healthcare's, the actual worker displacement is lower, indicating that manufacturing layoffs tend to be either smaller in scale per event or more distributed across numerous employers. The combination of BIC Graphic, Metal Industries, Medline Industries, and Unilever suggests that Clearwater maintains meaningful industrial operations, yet these are clearly subject to cyclical and structural pressures that generate repeated workforce adjustments.
Finance and Insurance represents a surprising concentration with 12 notices affecting 1,120 workers (12.7 percent). This reflects broader national trends in financial services consolidation, automation, and market volatility. Employers in this category are not individually named in the top employers list but collectively suggest that Clearwater serves as a regional financial services hub—one that has proven vulnerable to periodic contractions.
Retail employment displacement totaled 825 workers across 10 notices (9.4 percent), reflecting the well-documented structural decline in traditional retail as e-commerce reshapes consumer shopping patterns. Accommodation and food service generated 5 notices affecting 669 workers (7.6 percent), concentrated in hospitality establishments that serve both local demand and regional tourism.
Information and Technology, despite its reputation as a growth sector, generated 5 notices affecting 473 workers (5.4 percent). This suggests that while IT may be nationally ascendant, Clearwater's tech presence remains modest and vulnerable to market disruptions, acquisition-related consolidations, or the migration of operations to larger tech hubs like Tampa or Miami.
Clearwater's 27-year WARN notice record reveals distinct cyclical patterns aligned with national and regional economic dynamics. The initial data points from 1998-1999 show four notices each year, suggesting a baseline level of industrial restructuring typical of the late 1990s economy. The early 2000s maintained relative stability with modest fluctuations—five notices in 2001 and 2002 (likely reflecting post-9/11 economic adjustment), followed by declining activity through the mid-2000s.
The period from 2005 through 2019 shows remarkably low layoff notice activity, with many years generating only one or two notices and several years (2006, 2008, 2011, 2015) showing minimal displacement. This 14-year stretch likely reflects both the pre-Great Recession economic expansion (2005-2007) and the post-recession recovery period (2012-2019), during which Clearwater's economy stabilized. The near-total absence of notices from 2016-2018 and again in 2019 (only one notice) suggests a period of economic equilibrium or at least reduced structural adjustment.
The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic created a profound shock, with 13 notices filed as hospitality, retail, services, and other customer-facing businesses contracted sharply. This represented a temporary but severe disruption, with the concentration of notices in a single year indicating coordinated economic crisis rather than diffuse structural change.
Post-pandemic years (2022-2024) show stabilization at four notices annually, suggesting either new equilibrium around higher layoff frequency or data recording patterns. The single 2025 notice is too early in the year to inform trend analysis.
Notably absent from the dataset is any major layoff activity during the Great Recession (2008-2009), with only one notice filed in 2008 and two in 2009. This absence either reflects resilience in Clearwater's economy during that period or potential data incompleteness—a significant gap given national employment catastrophe during those years.
The displacement of 8,790 workers across 27 years translates to an average of 325 workers annually, but the uneven distribution means that years with concentrated layoff activity create disproportionate local economic stress. In 2020, the 13 notices created immediate unemployment pressure, reduced consumer spending, strained municipal tax revenues, and generated demand for workforce retraining services.
Clearwater's economy shows particular vulnerability in sectors that are theoretically stable. Healthcare layoffs disrupt not just patients' access to services but also the broader service ecosystem—medical professionals and support staff losing employment reduce demand for childcare, dining, retail, and other local services. Manufacturing layoffs create cascading impacts through supply chains and reduced spending by affected workers. The hospitality sector's vulnerability, demonstrated by the Hooters, Sheraton, and Belleview Biltmore notices, reflects the sector's sensitivity to tourism fluctuations and consumer discretionary spending patterns.
The concentration of displacement among large employers—particularly the YMCA's 1,206-worker impact—reveals dangerous dependency on a limited set of major institutions. When large employers contract, local infrastructure built around those employment bases becomes underutilized, creating fiscal stress for municipalities that depend on payroll-tax revenues and commercial activity.
Clearwater occupies a unique position within Florida's economy as part of the greater Tampa Bay region while maintaining distinct identity as a beach community. The 71 notices and 8,790 displaced workers reflect both regional manufacturing heritage and vulnerability to hospitality-sector fluctuations characteristic of Florida's economy.
Compared to statewide Florida patterns, Clearwater's manufacturing representation (13 notices, 1,677 workers) suggests stronger industrial presence than many Florida cities, which increasingly rely on service sector employment. However, manufacturing's persistent generation of notices indicates the sector faces structural headwinds similar to national patterns. Healthcare's dominance in displacement notices mirrors Florida statewide trends, as the state's aging population and healthcare infrastructure expansion created concentration in that sector.
The 2020 pandemic layoff concentration aligns with Florida's broader experience, as the state's tourism and hospitality-dependent economy contracted sharply. However, Clearwater's subsequent stabilization at four notices annually suggests either successful post-pandemic adaptation or normalization of workforce volatility at elevated levels.
Clearwater's economy appears moderately diversified relative to smaller Florida cities but more vulnerable than major metropolitan centers like Miami or Orlando, which maintain larger professional services, technology, and financial services bases. The absence of major corporate headquarters or tech industry concentration limits both growth dynamism and cyclical stability.
The data suggests Clearwater functions as a secondary employment center within Tampa Bay, dependent on regional demand for manufacturing, healthcare, financial services, and hospitality—sectors all vulnerable to national economic cycles and structural transformation. Local workforce development policies should focus on fostering resilience through occupational diversification and targeted recruitment of employers in growth sectors less subject to the cyclical pressures evident in Clearwater's layoff history.
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