WARN Act mass layoff and plant closure notices in Pulaski, Kentucky, updated daily.
Workers affected by industry sector
| Company | City | Employees | Notice Date | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WestRock | Pulaski | 24 | 2020-08-07 | |
| New Vista Behavioral Healthcare, Inc | Pulaski | 132 | 2019-05-01 | |
| ResCare CAKY of Somerset | Pulaski | 93 | 2019-03-12 | |
| General Electric | Pulaski | 63 | 2017-04-03 |
# Economic Analysis: Layoffs in Pulaski, Kentucky
Between 2017 and 2020, Pulaski, Kentucky experienced four Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) filings that collectively displaced 312 workers. While this figure may appear modest in absolute terms, the concentration of job losses within a small rural Kentucky community carries substantial implications for local economic stability and worker resilience. To contextualize this impact, a community the size of Pulaski losing 312 jobs represents a significant percentage of the available workforce, particularly when these reductions occur across essential service sectors rather than dispersed across numerous employers.
The temporal clustering of these notices—with two filings in 2019 alone—suggests a concentrated period of economic disruption rather than steady erosion. This pattern indicates that Pulaski did not experience gradual workforce contraction but rather acute shocks that likely strained local social services, unemployment systems, and worker retraining capacity within a narrow timeframe.
Four major employers account for the entirety of Pulaski's tracked WARN activity. New Vista Behavioral Healthcare, Inc. emerges as the most significant contributor, filing one notice affecting 132 workers—accounting for 42.3 percent of all layoffs in the dataset. This single filing represents a substantial workforce reduction for a healthcare provider, suggesting either a significant service contraction, organizational restructuring, or strategic operational consolidation.
ResCare CAKY of Somerset follows closely with 93 affected workers (29.8 percent of total layoffs), also filing one notice. The proximity of these two healthcare and social services employers in the data reflects broader industry consolidation pressures affecting smaller and mid-sized care providers. Both organizations operate in the behavioral health and residential care sectors, suggesting that similar business pressures may have driven both reductions.
General Electric, the notable industrial presence in this layoff profile, filed one notice displacing 63 workers (20.2 percent of total layoffs). While General Electric represents a substantially larger multinational corporation compared to the healthcare providers, the company's relatively modest workforce reduction in Pulaski suggests either a smaller facility footprint or a partial workforce adjustment rather than total facility closure.
WestRock, a packaging and paper products manufacturer, filed the smallest WARN notice with 24 affected workers (7.7 percent). This notice indicates operational strain within the manufacturing sector, though the relative scale suggests either a targeted efficiency initiative or a minor facility adjustment rather than comprehensive restructuring.
The industry breakdown reveals a pronounced concentration in healthcare and social services, which accounts for 132 workers across a single notice, alongside the utilities sector representing General Electric's 63-worker reduction. This two-sector concentration—healthcare and utilities—encompasses 195 of the 312 total displaced workers, or 62.5 percent of all layoffs. The absence of significant WARN activity in manufacturing beyond WestRock's relatively small notice is particularly notable given Kentucky's historical manufacturing dependence.
The healthcare sector's prominence in Pulaski's layoff profile reflects national trends toward care provider consolidation, insurance reimbursement pressures, and operational efficiency mandates. Behavioral health services, represented by both New Vista and ResCare, operate under increasingly constrained funding environments, particularly in rural areas where Medicaid dominance creates thinner margins and greater vulnerability to policy shifts.
General Electric's presence in the utilities sector signals exposure to ongoing energy sector transformation. The utility equipment and power generation industry has experienced sustained pressure from renewable energy adoption, efficiency standards, and corporate decarbonization commitments—forces that have pushed traditional equipment manufacturers to rationalize their workforce and operations. A 63-worker reduction at a General Electric facility likely reflects these sector-wide headwinds rather than isolated facility-specific challenges.
The distribution of WARN notices across four years (2017, 2019, 2019, 2020) demonstrates that Pulaski's layoff activity did not occur at a steady pace. The cluster of two notices in 2019 constitutes a critical stress point in the local economy. This concentration suggests that 2019 represented an inflection point where multiple employers implemented workforce reductions within the same calendar year—a pattern that likely overwhelmed local retraining resources and created competitive pressure for available jobs among displaced workers.
The single 2017 notice and single 2020 notice bracket this peak period, suggesting either pre-pandemic workforce adjustments or conditions specific to 2019 that prompted multiple simultaneous employer actions. The absence of 2018 WARN filings indicates that not every year generates layoff notices, even in communities experiencing economic stress. This uneven distribution complicates workforce planning and prevents the development of continuous adjustment mechanisms; instead, communities face periodic shocks requiring rapid mobilization of response capacity.
For Pulaski, the displacement of 312 workers carries cascading consequences extending well beyond the directly affected individuals. In small Kentucky communities, job loss in dominant employers creates immediate pressure on municipal and county revenue bases, as reduced employment translates to lower income tax revenues and reduced consumer spending. The loss of 132 positions at New Vista Behavioral Healthcare alone represents a significant reduction in professional employment and associated payroll spending within the community.
The concentration in healthcare and social services creates particular vulnerability for local economic stability. These sectors typically generate moderate-wage employment that forms the backbone of rural Kentucky middle-class household formation. Their contraction removes career pathways and stable income sources that workers rely upon to maintain housing, support families, and sustain consumption spending in local retail and service sectors.
The manufacturing sector's minimal presence in this layoff profile—represented only by WestRock's 24-worker reduction—contrasts sharply with historical Kentucky economic dependence. This absence suggests either that Pulaski lacks significant manufacturing employment (limiting the exposure to that sector's layoff risk) or that manufacturing employment has already contracted substantially, leaving fewer workers exposed to future reductions. Either interpretation indicates a structural economic shift within the community away from goods production toward service provision.
Pulaski's layoff profile reflects broader Kentucky economic pressures while displaying some distinct characteristics. The prominence of behavioral health and social services providers aligns with national trends affecting rural healthcare, where small and mid-sized operators face particular financial strain. However, the absence of significant coal, energy extraction, or heavy manufacturing WARN notices distinguishes Pulaski from Kentucky communities in eastern coal regions or northern industrial areas that have experienced more severe and concentrated layoffs.
The four-notice concentration over four years places Pulaski within Kentucky's pattern of episodic rather than catastrophic workforce displacement. This trajectory offers a more optimistic foundation for economic recovery compared to communities experiencing persistent, multi-year layoff sequences. However, the healthcare sector concentration creates regional vulnerabilities that extend beyond Pulaski proper, as behavioral health provider consolidation affects the entire region's service delivery capacity and employment stability.
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