WARN Act mass layoff and plant closure notices in Fort Myers, Florida, updated daily.
# Fort Myers Layoff Landscape: A Comprehensive WARN Notice Analysis
Fort Myers has experienced substantial workforce displacement over the past quarter-century, with 67 WARN notices affecting 5,349 workers across diverse economic sectors. This figure represents a significant cumulative impact on the region's employment base, though the distribution of these layoffs across 27 years reveals distinct patterns of economic stress tied to national cycles and local market conditions.
The average layoff notice in Fort Myers affects approximately 80 workers per filing, but this aggregate obscures important variation in scale. The largest single displacement events involved Portex, Inc. with 415 workers and Aramark Florida Gulf Coast University with 288 workers, which dwarf the median layoff size and represent concentrated shock events to specific labor markets within the region. The notice pattern—67 filings for roughly 5,349 workers—indicates that Fort Myers experiences episodic rather than continuous mass layoffs, suggesting the community faces periodic adjustment challenges rather than chronic structural employment decline.
The concentration of WARN notices among a handful of employers illuminates which Fort Myers institutions wield outsized influence over regional employment stability. Enterprise Holdings dominates the dataset with three separate notices displacing 157 workers, though this is distributed across multiple events rather than representing a single catastrophic contraction. The company's repeated presence in WARN filings suggests ongoing operational adjustments in its Fort Myers operations, whether through fleet management changes, branch consolidations, or shifts in service delivery models.
The next tier of employers reveals sectoral vulnerabilities. Chico's FAS, Inc., the retailer headquartered in Fort Myers, filed three notices affecting 60 workers—a relatively modest figure for a major local employer but indicative of the retail sector's ongoing contraction. Teleperformance, a call center and business process outsourcing firm, filed two notices displacing 186 workers, highlighting the vulnerability of customer service and back-office operations to automation and labor arbitrage.
Several large single-notice events deserve specific attention. Portex, Inc. filed one notice affecting 415 workers, making it the largest single displacement event in the dataset. Without additional context about Portex's business model, this notice likely reflects either a facility closure, a major operational consolidation, or a significant loss of major contracts in manufacturing or industrial services. Hertz Corporation at Southwest Florida International Airport displaced 268 workers in a single notice—a particularly notable event given the vehicle rental industry's susceptibility to travel demand shocks and its proximity to tourism-dependent Fort Myers.
Pall Aerospace Corporation displaced 255 workers in one filing, pointing to aerospace manufacturing or component supply chain vulnerabilities in the region. First Home Builders of Florida filed a notice affecting 204 workers, and Kmart Store #4768 affected 200 workers—the latter exemplifying retail's structural decline that has accelerated nationally since 2010.
The real estate and hospitality nexus appears throughout the employer list. Robb & Stucky Limited, a furniture retailer, displaced 178 workers; HMSHost at the airport displaced 169 workers; and Aramark at JetBlue Park displaced 118 workers. These employers cluster around tourism infrastructure, indicating that Fort Myers's layoff profile is partially shaped by the seasonality and volatility of its visitor economy.
The industry breakdown reveals which economic sectors have borne the heaviest employment adjustment burden in Fort Myers. Retail stands out dramatically with 9 notices affecting 1,033 workers—nearly one-fifth of all displaced workers. This concentration reflects the existential crisis facing traditional brick-and-mortar retail, accelerated by e-commerce competition and pandemic-driven consumer behavior shifts. Stores like Kmart and Montgomery Ward & Co., which filed a notice affecting 120 workers, represent particularly vulnerable retail formats that depend on foot traffic and have struggled to compete with online alternatives.
Accommodation and food service follows closely with 6 notices affecting 823 workers. This sector's vulnerability is tied to cyclical demand patterns, pandemic-related closures, and labor market tightness that forces marginal operators to exit the market. The presence of multiple Aramark filings (288 workers at Florida Gulf Coast University and 118 workers at JetBlue Park) indicates that contract food service—dependent on institutional purchasing and discretionary spending—faces particular margin pressure.
Manufacturing presents a complex picture with 6 notices affecting 764 workers, distributed among aerospace (Pall Aerospace Corporation with 255 workers), components and industrial goods (Portex, Inc. with 415 workers), and miscellaneous manufacturing. These layoffs likely reflect either facility consolidations, loss of major contracts, or automation-driven workforce optimization typical of capital-intensive manufacturing.
Information and Technology generated 7 notices displacing 536 workers, with Teleperformance accounting for 186 of these. The outsourcing and call center industry's presence in Fort Myers suggests the region has attracted labor-cost-conscious operations that remain vulnerable to automation, offshore competition, and the post-pandemic shift toward distributed and remote work arrangements that reduce the need for centralized facilities.
Real estate involvement in 6 notices affecting 491 workers reflects the fragility of property development cycles. The inclusion of First Home Builders of Florida with 204 workers suggests residential construction employment responds sharply to credit cycles and housing demand fluctuations, making this sector particularly cyclical in Fort Myers's economy.
The temporal distribution of WARN notices reveals Fort Myers's layoff patterns track recognizable national economic disruptions. The early 2000s recession generated 6 notices in 2001 and 5 in 2002, concentrated during the tech bust aftermath. Activity remained sporadic through 2008, then accelerated sharply with the financial crisis, though only 3 notices appear in 2008 itself—likely reflecting the lag between economic shock and formal WARN filing.
The recovery period of 2010-2019 shows minimal WARN activity in most years, with only 11 notices across the entire decade. This relative stability might reflect either genuine employment stability during the recovery or potential underreporting and informal layoffs that fell below WARN threshold requirements.
The most striking pattern emerges in 2020, when 12 notices displaced workers in a single year—the highest annual total in the dataset. This spike directly corresponds to pandemic-induced shutdowns and the collapse of tourism, hospitality, and retail sectors. The concentration of large layoffs in sectors like accommodation, food service, and retail during 2020 confirms that Fort Myers, with its significant tourism and seasonal employment base, absorbed disproportionate pandemic impact.
Post-pandemic activity remains elevated with 4 notices in 2021 and continuing into 2024-2025 with scattered filings, suggesting the region has not fully restabilized. The persistence of layoffs four years after the pandemic's acute phase suggests ongoing structural adjustment rather than temporary cyclical disruption, particularly in retail and hospitality.
Across 5,349 displaced workers, Fort Myers faces meaningful labor market absorption challenges. The retail sector's contraction—1,033 workers displaced—has eliminated relatively accessible employment for workers without advanced degrees or specialized credentials. These workers face either prolonged unemployment, wage penalties from switching to lower-paying service sectors, or geographic migration seeking better opportunities elsewhere.
The temporal clustering of large layoffs creates uneven stress on community institutions. The 2020 pandemic surge placed immediate demands on workforce development systems, unemployment insurance infrastructure, and social services at precisely the moment when government agencies themselves faced operational constraints. The 12 notices in 2020 likely overwhelmed retraining capacity and concentrated displacement among hospitality and retail workers—sectors offering lower average wages and fewer transferable skills.
The aerospace and manufacturing layoffs, while smaller in aggregate numbers, affect workers with specialized training and higher wages. Pall Aerospace Corporation and Portex, Inc. displaced workers likely possess technical skills commanding above-average Fort Myers wages. Their displacement creates localized talent loss as these workers either leave the region or accept underemployment, reducing the competitiveness of Fort Myers's advanced manufacturing ecosystem.
Real estate sector layoffs (First Home Builders of Florida with 204 workers) suggest Fort Myers's construction cycle vulnerability. These displacements coincide with broader housing market uncertainty and indicate that residential development—historically a driver of regional growth—remains exposed to credit cycles and consumer confidence shocks that Fort Myers cannot control.
Fort Myers's 67 WARN notices and 5,349 displaced workers must be contextualized within Florida's broader economic profile. Florida's tourism dependency—particularly acute in Southwest Florida—means regions like Fort Myers absorb concentrated layoff impacts during travel demand shocks. The 2020 pandemic data (12 notices, concentrated in hospitality and retail) confirms that Fort Myers experiences more severe employment disruption than interior Florida regions less dependent on seasonal visitor spending.
The prominence of rental car, food service, and retail operations reflects Southwest Florida's structural economic position as a tourism and retirement destination rather than a manufacturing or technology hub. This employment structure creates both stability (retirees and tourists sustain steady demand) and vulnerability (external shocks to travel and discretionary spending cascade through the economy).
Compared to manufacturing-dependent regions in other states, Fort Myers shows less dramatic single-event layoffs from major plant closures, though Portex, Inc. with 415 workers demonstrates that industrial facilities remain exposed to sudden closure or consolidation. The absence of a major employer equivalent to automotive or appliance manufacturers means Fort Myers's workforce adjustments scatter across smaller establishments, perhaps reducing the concentrated community trauma but distributing adjustment burden across more workers and sectors.
The retail contraction evident in Fort Myers's data—1,033 workers from 9 notices—aligns with nationwide retail consolidation and e-commerce displacement, suggesting the region faces secular rather than cyclical employment challenges in this sector. Unlike manufacturing declines tied to specific policy changes or trade shocks, retail's contraction reflects technological disruption and consumer behavior shifts that transcend regional economic conditions.
Fort Myers's resilience relative to some Florida regions may stem from its retirement economy characteristics. Unlike tourism-dependent areas that face binary outcomes (boom or bust), retirement communities sustain steadier demand for healthcare, real estate, and consumer services even during economic downturns. Yet this same characteristic creates lower average wage employment and limits high-skill job growth, explaining why Manufacturing and Information Technology together account for only 13 notices (compared to Retail's 9 and Accommodation & Food's 6).
The geographical distribution of layoffs around Southwest Florida International Airport and associated hospitality/food service operations further underscores Fort Myers's tourism economy dependence. This clustering means WARN filings concentrate during periods of travel collapse, as happened in 2020, rather than distributing steadily across the economic cycle.
Understanding Fort Myers's layoff landscape requires recognizing that the region trades long-term stability for cyclical vulnerability. The 5,349 displaced workers reflect not inevitable economic decline but rather an economic structure optimized for specific demand conditions—retiree spending and visitor arrivals—that periodically face shocks beyond local control. The concentration of layoffs in retail and hospitality, combined with episodic rather than continuous displacement patterns, suggests Fort Myers faces episodic adjustment challenges requiring robust workforce development and labor market flexibility rather than structural economic transformation.
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