WARN Act Layoffs in Union County, South Carolina

In-Depth Analysis: Layoffs in Union County, South Carolina

# Economic Analysis: Union County, South Carolina Layoff Landscape

Overview: Scale and Significance of Workforce Disruption

Union County, South Carolina faces a concentrated layoff challenge that carries outsized importance for a smaller regional economy. Eight WARN notices affecting 1,140 workers represent a significant shock to the county's labor market, particularly when contextualized against South Carolina's broader employment environment. The current state unemployment rate stands at 5.0%, above the national average of 4.3%, suggesting Union County workers will face stiffer competition when seeking new employment. While South Carolina's insured unemployment rate of 0.66% and initial jobless claims of 1,991 for the week ending April 18, 2026 indicate a relatively stabilized statewide labor market, the concentration of layoffs in Union County—a smaller, economically vulnerable area—creates localized distress that aggregated state-level data masks.

The temporal clustering of these notices amplifies concern. Two notices filed in 2022 and two more projected for 2026 suggest waves of adjustment rather than isolated incidents. This pattern indicates that Union County's traditional industrial base is undergoing structural transformation, not temporary cyclical downturns.

Dominant Employers and Drivers of Layoffs

The layoff landscape in Union County is dominated by two companies whose actions explain 77% of all workers affected. Belk Fulfillment Center stands as the largest single disruptor, filing two separate WARN notices that together account for 620 displaced workers. The fulfillment center's decision to reduce its workforce through two distinct layoff events suggests either phased closure operations or strategic consolidation of logistics operations. Given that Belk itself filed a separate notice affecting only 28 workers, the fulfillment operation and retail headquarters represent distinct workforce disruptions, indicating broader organizational restructuring within the company rather than a single catastrophic event.

Milliken, the Cedar Hill Plant location, filed two notices displacing 252 workers. As a traditional textile manufacturing operation, Milliken's workforce reductions reflect the continued rationalization of American textile production in the face of global competition and automation. Two separate notices from the same facility suggest either a phased downsizing or multiple rounds of adjustment as the company optimizes its manufacturing footprint.

Three additional manufacturers round out the major employers filing notices. Elevate Textiles displaced 120 workers in a single event, while International Textile Group/Carlisle Finishing affected 57 workers. ESAB Group, a diversified industrial equipment manufacturer, filed a notice affecting 63 workers. These three companies collectively account for 240 displaced workers, reinforcing the textile and light manufacturing concentration that defines Union County's industrial heritage.

Industry Composition and Sectoral Vulnerability

Manufacturing dominates Union County's WARN notice landscape, accounting for five of eight total notices and 892 of 1,140 affected workers. This concentration—78% of all layoffs—reveals an economy heavily dependent on a single sector facing persistent structural headwinds. The textile industry, in particular, emerges as the most vulnerable segment within manufacturing. Belk Fulfillment Center and Milliken alone account for 872 displaced workers, meaning the retail logistics and textile manufacturing sectors together represent 76% of all layoffs.

This sectoral concentration creates compounding vulnerability. Traditional manufacturing employment in textiles has faced decades of decline due to overseas competition, automation, and shifting supply chains. Union County's economy lacks the diversified base that would allow it to absorb shocks from one sector. Unlike larger metropolitan areas with robust technology, healthcare, professional services, and finance sectors, Union County depends on a manufacturing core that is systematically contracting.

The transportation sector appears in secondary fashion, with two notices totaling 248 workers (likely connected to Belk Fulfillment Center operations, which require significant logistics infrastructure). Retail represents only one notice and 28 workers, though the broader retail sector impacts are captured in fulfillment operations.

Geographic Concentration Within the County

Union County's layoffs cluster in three municipalities, with Union city itself bearing the heaviest burden. Four WARN notices centered in Union affect the largest concentration of workers, making the city the economic epicenter of disruption. This concentration means that a single city's labor market will absorb the majority of adjustment challenges, overwhelming local job training resources, social services, and reemployment assistance programs.

Jonesville and Carlisle each experience two notices, distributing layoff effects across the county. However, the dominance of Union city indicates that county-level economic development responses must prioritize that municipality's workforce stabilization and business recruitment efforts.

Historical Trajectory and Temporal Patterns

Examining WARN notices from 2012 through 2026 reveals an unsettling pattern of recurring disruption. Notices filed in 2012, 2016, 2018, and 2020 represent isolated incidents, suggesting episodic rather than continuous adjustment. However, the clustering of two notices in 2022 and two more projected for 2026 signals acceleration. The gap between 2020 and 2022, followed immediately by 2026 projections, suggests that Union County may be entering a period of sustained industrial contraction.

This temporal distribution does not reflect typical cyclical unemployment patterns driven by macroeconomic conditions. Instead, it indicates structural transformation—the permanent loss of manufacturing capacity and the shift toward logistics, automation, and lower-labor-intensity operations. The fact that projections extend to 2026 suggests companies are planning these reductions in advance, indicating intentional strategic decisions rather than crisis-driven layoffs.

Economic Impact Assessment for Union County

The layoff of 1,140 workers in a county economy represents a profound shock. Without knowing the county's total employment base, contextualizing this loss requires understanding that manufacturing employment nationwide has contracted by millions of jobs over three decades. Union County, as a small county with historical dependence on textile and manufacturing employment, likely experiences outsized impacts.

The Belk Fulfillment Center's two-notice layoff pattern particularly threatens the local economy's stability. Fulfillment centers, while creating temporary employment surges during hiring phases, often represent lower-wage employment than traditional manufacturing positions. A shift from Milliken's higher-skilled manufacturing jobs to lower-wage logistics work represents not merely employment displacement but wage erosion for the county's workforce.

South Carolina's state unemployment rate of 5.0% provides limited comfort to Union County workers. State-level metrics mask significant regional variation. Smaller counties experiencing concentrated manufacturing layoffs typically experience unemployment rates exceeding state averages, particularly for workers in displaced occupations. Manufacturing workers seeking reemployment in counties without diversified job bases often face long jobless spells or must accept positions in lower-wage service sectors.

H-1B Visa Petitions and Foreign Labor Dynamics

The H-1B/LCA petition data provided for South Carolina does not identify specific Union County employers as major filers. Statewide, South Carolina has seen 16,892 certified H-1B petitions from 3,337 unique employers, with an 89.7% approval rate indicating strong demand for specialized foreign labor in technology and engineering occupations. The top H-1B employers—Clemson University, Capgemini America, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, and the Medical University of South Carolina—concentrate in higher education and technology consulting rather than traditional manufacturing.

The absence of Union County's major layoff filers from the top H-1B employer list suggests that the county's manufacturing base is not competing for specialized foreign talent. Instead, the layoffs reflect industry-wide contraction rather than workforce substitution through H-1B hiring. This dynamic actually worsens the reemployment outlook for displaced workers. Companies that hire H-1B workers are typically growing and upgrading skill requirements; companies laying off workers in Union County are shrinking or automating, leaving fewer positions for retraining into advanced occupations.

Conclusion: Economic Vulnerability and Regional Priorities

Union County confronts a structural economic challenge that extends beyond temporary unemployment. With 1,140 workers displaced through concentrated WARN notices, a manufacturing-dependent economy faces the reality of permanent job loss in its historical core industry. The clustering of layoffs in the city of Union, the dominance of textile and logistics employers, and the historical pattern of recurring disruption all point toward an economy requiring fundamental diversification.

The local labor market will struggle to reabsorb these workers without substantial business recruitment efforts targeting sectors beyond traditional manufacturing. State and local economic development agencies must prioritize Union County for targeted retraining programs, small business development support, and aggressive recruitment of technology, healthcare, and professional services employers capable of offering wages comparable to displaced manufacturing positions.