WARN Act Layoffs in West Des Moines, Iowa

Analysis: Layoffs in West Des Moines, Iowa

# Economic Analysis of Layoffs in West Des Moines, Iowa

Overview: Scale and Significance of Workforce Reductions

West Des Moines has experienced significant labor market disruption over the past two decades, with 105 WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) notices affecting 4,406 workers since 2005. To contextualize this impact: if West Des Moines's working-age population hovers around 35,000-40,000 people, these layoffs represent approximately 11 percent of the potential workforce, though the effects are concentrated in specific periods and sectors.

The most striking feature of this layoff data is its temporal clustering. The overwhelming majority of WARN notices—46 notices affecting 1,745 workers—have occurred in just the past two years (2024-2025), representing 44 percent of all notices and 40 percent of all affected workers since 2005. This recent acceleration suggests that West Des Moines is experiencing an intensification of structural economic pressures that merit serious attention from policymakers and community leaders.

The Wells Fargo Dominance: A Single Company's Outsized Impact

Wells Fargo stands as the dominant force in West Des Moines's layoff landscape, filing 71 notices that affected 1,942 workers—representing 68 percent of all WARN notices and 44 percent of all affected workers in the city. This extraordinary concentration illustrates both the critical importance of major employers to the local economy and the vulnerability that comes with reliance on a single large corporation.

The bank's layoff activity has been remarkably consistent over time, suggesting not isolated restructuring events but rather ongoing, systematic workforce reductions. Wells Fargo has filed layoff notices across multiple years including 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025. This pattern reflects the company's larger corporate trajectory following the 2016 accounts scandal, during which the company admitted to millions of fraudulent accounts opened without customer authorization. The subsequent years have seen Wells Fargo shrink its overall workforce dramatically as it faced regulatory scrutiny, customer defection, and business model restructuring.

For West Des Moines specifically, Wells Fargo's presence in the city appears to represent a significant operations or service center. The consistency of layoffs across a decade suggests that the company has maintained substantial employment in the city even as it reduces headcount. Each wave of layoffs—whether in 2018, 2022, or most recently in 2024-2025—represents direct income loss for hundreds of local families and reduced consumer spending power in the West Des Moines economy.

Beyond Wells Fargo, the remaining 34 notices affecting 2,464 workers represent a more distributed pattern of workforce reductions. MetLife, the second-largest contributor, filed 5 notices affecting 213 workers, accounting for roughly 5 percent of total layoffs. This is a meaningful but comparatively minor presence compared to the banking sector's concentration.

Industry Structure: Finance and Insurance Dominance

The industry breakdown reveals an economy heavily tilted toward financial services. The Finance & Insurance sector accounts for 37 notices affecting 904 workers, representing 35 percent of all WARN notices, though notably only 21 percent of affected workers. This discrepancy—fewer workers per notice in finance than overall—suggests that financial services layoffs tend to be smaller, more frequent events, potentially reflecting ongoing optimization of operations and headcount in response to technology and regulatory changes.

In contrast, when major disruptions occur outside finance, they tend to be larger events. UnitedHealthcare Community & State filed a single notice affecting 549 workers, making it the second-largest layoff event in the city's recent history despite being only one notice. This healthcare layoff represents a fundamentally different kind of disruption—the type that transforms a single decision at a corporate headquarters into massive local job loss almost overnight.

The retail sector, historically significant to Iowa's economy, also appears vulnerable. Younkers, a department store chain, filed 2 notices affecting 272 workers, while Sears Holdings Company filed 1 notice affecting 162 workers. Together, these represent 434 workers in retail alone, reflecting the nationwide decline of traditional department store retail in the era of e-commerce. The Fresh Market, a specialty grocer, contributed another 86 workers affected through a single notice.

The relative absence of manufacturing layoffs in this dataset is notable. West Des Moines is located in Polk County, which has historically maintained a diverse economy, but the WARN notice data suggests that whatever manufacturing presence exists in West Des Moines proper is either not experiencing major layoffs or is concentrated in smaller employers not required to file WARN notices (which apply to employers with 100 or more employees at a single site, or 500 or more aggregate employees).

Historical Trends: Acceleration and Concentration

Examining the temporal distribution of layoffs reveals three distinct phases in West Des Moines's labor market. From 2005 to 2015, the city experienced minimal layoff activity—only 5 notices total across that entire decade. This period captures most of the recovery from the 2008 financial crisis, suggesting that West Des Moines weathered that period relatively well, at least in terms of major employer reductions.

The second phase spans 2016 to 2021, during which layoff activity increased modestly. The city experienced 22 notices affecting approximately 800 workers across these six years. This corresponds with Wells Fargo's post-scandal workforce adjustments and the broader post-financial-crisis restructuring of the banking sector. The 2020 notices remain at just 1, suggesting that initial COVID-19 disruptions did not immediately trigger major mass layoffs in West Des Moines, though this may reflect timing lags in WARN notice filings.

The third and most alarming phase began in 2022 and continues through 2025, with 66 notices affecting 2,945 workers—68 percent of all layoffs since 2005 compressed into just four years. The acceleration is particularly severe in the most recent years: 2024 alone saw 24 notices affecting an unknown but substantial number of workers, followed by 20 notices in 2025. Even accounting for 2 notices projected in 2026, the annual rate of notices has roughly tripled since 2022 compared to the 2016-2021 average.

This recent acceleration raises critical questions about what's driving the intensification. For Wells Fargo, ongoing regulatory and reputational challenges continue to drive workforce optimization. For healthcare and insurance more broadly, the sector faces pressures from healthcare cost inflation, changing reimbursement models, and automation of administrative functions. The retail layoffs reflect the accelerating shift to e-commerce, while the presence of smaller layoffs across diverse employers suggests broader economic uncertainty may be affecting hiring and retention decisions across the local economy.

Local Economic Impact: Income Loss and Multiplier Effects

The direct economic impact of 4,406 layoffs is substantial and multifaceted. Even assuming an average wage of $45,000 per year—a reasonable estimate given the heavy concentration in white-collar finance and insurance roles—the cumulative annual income loss represented by all WARN notices since 2005 would amount to approximately $198 million if all affected workers had been permanently displaced without finding equivalent employment.

Of course, the actual impact depends on labor market conditions and worker characteristics at the time of each layoff. During the strong labor market of 2018-2019, displaced Wells Fargo workers likely found comparable employment relatively quickly. In contrast, the 2024-2025 period of concentrated layoffs creates a different scenario: many displaced workers may find themselves competing for a diminishing pool of jobs, potentially accepting lower wages or positions outside their fields of expertise.

The multiplier effects extend beyond direct wage loss. Workers who experience involuntary job loss reduce consumer spending not only on discretionary items but sometimes on essentials, affecting local retail, healthcare, and service providers. Property values in neighborhoods with concentrated displacement may face pressure. Tax revenues for West Des Moines schools and city services may decline if significant numbers of mid-to-high-income earners leave the community for employment elsewhere.

The social impact also merits consideration. Job loss is associated with increased stress on family structures, higher rates of health problems, and increased demand for social services. For workers in their 50s and 60s—common in financial services—layoffs can mean premature exit from the workforce or underemployment until retirement age.

One mitigating factor is West Des Moines's location within the Des Moines metropolitan area. The broader metro area, with a population exceeding 600,000, provides alternative employment opportunities in education, healthcare, government, and other sectors. Workers displaced from West Des Moines may find employment elsewhere in the metro area, though this requires commuting and offers no guarantee of equivalent wages or benefits.

Regional Context: West Des Moines Within Iowa's Economy

West Des Moines represents a concentration point for Iowa's corporate employment, particularly in financial services. Polk County, in which West Des Moines is located, has historically served as Iowa's economic center, home to corporate headquarters for Principal Financial Group, insurance companies, and other major employers. The heavy concentration of layoffs in West Des Moines reflects its role as a financial services hub within Iowa.

Data specific to other Iowa metros would provide important comparative context. However, the pattern seen in West Des Moines—financial services dominance, recent acceleration in layoff activity, and retail sector vulnerability—likely mirrors trends in other Iowa communities. The national shift away from traditional banking operations, the consolidation and automation of insurance operations, and the transformation of retail all affect Iowa communities broadly.

The absence of major manufacturing layoffs in this dataset may also reflect geographic shifts within Iowa. Manufacturing employment has been historically concentrated in different regions of Iowa, while Des Moines built its economy on corporate headquarters and services. West Des Moines, as a prosperous suburb of Des Moines, likely captures disproportionately more corporate workforce disruption than manufacturing communities would.

Looking Forward: Structural Pressures and Unknowns

The trajectory evident in the data—minimal activity through 2015, gradual increase through 2021, and dramatic acceleration 2022 onward—suggests that West Des Moines faces sustained pressure on employment in its dominant sectors. Wells Fargo appears unlikely to reverse course on workforce reduction in the near term given ongoing regulatory challenges and industry consolidation pressures. The financial services sector broadly faces disruption from fintech, changing consumer behavior, and ongoing restructuring.

The recent addition of 20 notices projected for 2025 and 2 notices for 2026, while preliminary, suggests that layoff momentum has not yet peaked. If current trends continue, the year 2025 could surpass even 2024's record 24 notices.

For policymakers in West Des Moines, this data underscores the vulnerability of an economy relying heavily on a single employer and a single industry sector. Economic diversification efforts that attract employers in growing sectors—technology, healthcare, advanced manufacturing, professional services—become not merely desirable but essential. Investment in workforce retraining programs, particularly for workers displaced from finance and insurance roles, offers one avenue for helping affected workers transition to new careers. Regional coordination with other Iowa communities facing similar employment disruptions could facilitate sharing of best practices and resources.

The concentration of recent layoffs also demands attention to the timing and sequencing of workforce reductions. When multiple major employers conduct layoffs within short timeframes, the cumulative effect on the local labor market and social services can exceed what any single layoff might suggest. West Des Moines may benefit from labor market monitoring systems that track not just WARN notices but broader employment trends, providing early warning of emerging pressures.

The data ultimately presents a community facing real structural economic challenges but not a crisis without remedy. The diversified nature of the Des Moines metro economy provides resilience that a single-industry community might lack. However, the acceleration and concentration of recent layoffs demand proactive rather than reactive policy responses from local economic development leaders.