WARN Act Layoffs in Andover, Kansas

Analysis: Layoffs in Andover, Kansas

# Economic Analysis of Andover, Kansas Layoffs

Overview: Scale and Significance of Workforce Reductions

Andover, Kansas has experienced 387 documented job losses across seven WARN Act notices since 2002, according to WARN Firehose data. While this represents a relatively modest absolute figure for a regional economy, the concentration of these losses among a handful of major employers and their clustering in recent years suggests meaningful disruption to the local labor market. The average layoff notice in Andover has affected 55 workers, considerably higher than many similarly-sized Kansas communities, indicating that when companies do downsize, they do so at a significant scale.

The temporal distribution of these layoffs reveals a critical pattern: five of the seven notices occurred between 2023 and 2026, with a gap of three years separating the 2020 layoff from the 2023 cluster. This recent acceleration warrants close attention from local policymakers and business leaders. The 2002 notice, isolated and decades-old, carries little relevance to current economic conditions; the meaningful historical record begins with the 2020 pandemic-era reduction and intensifies dramatically in the subsequent three-year window.

Dominant Employers and Workforce Reduction Drivers

Durham School Services emerges as the single most consistent source of layoff activity in Andover, filing three separate WARN notices affecting 69 workers combined. This transportation and logistics company's repeated workforce reductions suggest structural challenges in the school bus operator sector—likely driven by declining student enrollment, route consolidation, or operational efficiency measures. Each filing represents a distinct downsizing event rather than a single reorganization, indicating ongoing pressure within the company's Andover operations.

Vornado Air, LLC, a manufacturer of ventilation and air circulation equipment, accounts for two WARN notices affecting 72 workers. The timing of these filings (both in 2026) suggests either a single major restructuring announced in two phases or sequential business decisions responding to market conditions. As an equipment manufacturer, Vornado's layoffs likely reflect broader trends in industrial production, supply chain optimization, or demand fluctuations in HVAC markets.

The single largest displacement event came from Signify Health, a healthcare services provider, which filed one notice affecting 156 workers—40 percent of all documented layoffs in Andover from a single company. This represents the healthcare sector's most significant footprint in Andover's recent layoff history. SM&P Utility Resources, Inc. contributes 90 workers to the total across one notice, affecting the utilities sector specifically.

The concentration among these four employers is striking: they account for all seven notices and all 387 affected workers, leaving no dispersed smaller-employer layoffs in the record. This pattern suggests Andover's economy relies heavily on a small number of large employers, creating vulnerability to idiosyncratic corporate decisions rather than broader economic shifts.

Industry Patterns and Structural Forces

The industrial composition of Andover's layoff activity reveals exposure across three distinct sectors: education (three notices, 69 workers), healthcare (one notice, 156 workers), and utilities (one notice, 90 workers). Manufacturing appears only through Vornado Air's two notices. This absence of broader manufacturing decline suggests Andover has not experienced the kind of industrial contraction that has devastated some Kansas communities.

The education sector's representation through Durham School Services reflects the structural pressures facing school transportation nationwide. Demographic decline in rural Kansas, consolidation of school districts, and technological changes in routing and fleet management create persistent headwinds for transportation operators. Three separate notices from the same company indicate this is not a one-time adjustment but rather an ongoing reduction process.

Healthcare's presence through Signify Health presents a counterintuitive pattern. The healthcare sector has generally expanded during the 2020-2026 period, yet this single, substantial layoff of 156 workers indicates company-specific rather than sector-wide pressures. Signify Health's business model in home and primary care services may have faced profitability challenges, operational restructuring needs, or shifts in reimbursement rates that drove the workforce reduction independent of broader healthcare growth.

The utilities sector's involvement through SM&P Utility Resources, Inc. reflects a more stable employment pattern; single notices from this sector are less common than repeated reductions from other employers. Utilities layoffs typically signal infrastructure consolidation, automation investments, or service area changes rather than sector collapse.

Historical Trends: Acceleration and Timing

The distribution of WARN notices across 2002, 2020, 2023, and 2026 demonstrates a striking asymmetry. Twenty years elapsed between 2002 and 2020 with apparently no major layoffs, followed by rapid-fire filings in the 2023-2026 window. This pattern defies simple explanations and instead suggests convergent pressures hitting Andover's major employers simultaneously or nearly so.

The 2020 notice likely corresponds to pandemic disruptions, with schools shifting to remote learning and service industries facing revenue shocks. The subsequent three-year pause might have represented a recovery period, but the 2023-2026 cluster indicates that recovery proved temporary or incomplete. By 2023, when Durham School Services began its first filing and as Vornado and Signify Health prepared their notices, the economy had ostensibly recovered from pandemic effects, yet major employers moved to reduce workforce aggressively.

This acceleration defies the typical assumption that layoffs represent cyclical unemployment responding to recession. The 2023-2026 period encompassed years of relatively robust national economic growth, low unemployment, and labor market tightness. Andover's layoffs therefore reflect structural factors—operational efficiency, automation, market consolidation, or business model shifts—rather than macroeconomic cycles.

Local Economic Impact: Employment and Community Effects

For a city of Andover's size (approximately 14,000 residents based on recent Census data), the loss of 387 jobs represents a meaningful employment shock. If Andover's labor force approximates 6,500-7,000 workers, these layoffs represent roughly 5.5 to 6 percent of total employment disappearing across WARN-notice events. While not constituting an economic collapse, this scale of job loss concentrates hardship among affected workers and their families and reduces local consumer spending and tax revenues.

The clustering of layoffs among specific employers creates geographic and occupational concentrations of job loss. Workers in school transportation, healthcare support services, utilities, and HVAC manufacturing face substantially elevated unemployment risk. These are typically moderate-skill positions without extensive transferability, meaning displaced workers may face retraining requirements or commuting to regional job centers.

Andover's economy likely depends on these employers for meaningful portions of local payroll. The sustained presence of Durham School Services suggests ongoing school district contracts, but three separate layoff notices indicate shrinking headcount. Signify Health's single large notice of 156 workers represents a significant single-event displacement; reabsorption of this workforce into the local economy would require substantial new business investment or employer growth.

Housing markets, retail activity, and municipal revenues suffer directly from sustained job losses. Property tax bases reflect employment stability; school district budgets depend on both educational employment and the broader tax base. The concentration of reductions in education and healthcare affects sectors where workers often have moderate incomes—not wealthy populations whose loss of employment barely registers economically.

Regional Context and Kansas Comparisons

Kansas has experienced significant manufacturing decline, agricultural mechanization, and demographic outflow for decades. Andover, in Butler County within the Kansas City metropolitan area, has somewhat insulated itself from the most severe statewide pressures through its suburban location and proximity to Kansas City's diversified economy. Yet Andover cannot entirely escape regional patterns.

The presence of school transportation and utilities employment reflects Kansas's rural and suburban character. These sectors employ thousands across the state but face relentless pressure from automation, consolidation, and demographic shift. Durham School Services' repeated layoffs in Andover likely echo similar patterns across Kansas school districts confronting smaller student populations and tighter budgets.

Healthcare's presence in Andover's layoff record through Signify Health may reflect the sector's ongoing profitability challenges despite overall growth. Rural and suburban healthcare providers across Kansas struggle with reimbursement pressures, workforce recruitment, and operational costs. A major healthcare employer's substantial workforce reduction in Andover may presage similar moves elsewhere in the state.

Andover's relative advantage lies in its metropolitan proximity and existing employer diversity. Unlike many Kansas communities dependent on single industries or employers, Andover hosts representatives from education, healthcare, manufacturing, and utilities. Yet this apparent diversity masks underlying vulnerability: seven notices among four employers reveal concentration rather than dispersed economic activity. True resilience would involve hundreds of smaller employers across multiple sectors, not a handful of large firms.

The trajectory evident in Andover's data—two decades of relative stability followed by concentrated recent layoffs—may reflect broader Kansas patterns only beginning to manifest. If national trends toward automation, consolidation, and efficiency acceleration continue, communities like Andover may see the frequency of workforce reductions increase further, making proactive workforce development and business recruitment essential for maintaining employment levels and economic vitality.