Another wave of layoffs at an Indian Land site comes ahead of a full site closure
Employee layoffs have begun and more will come as a Fort Mill area manufacturing site closes.
Cardinal Health notified the state through two WARN notices in December of a planned closure, then sent another notice in January. The most recent notice details phased job losses with the permanent closure of the manufacturing center at 785 Fort Mill Highway in Indian Land.
There were 66 job losses in the first wave last week, and 66 more expected on Feb. 26. The third wave is expected March 26, according to the most recent notice. That notice states there will be “future employee separations” with the closing.
About two-thirds of the 29 layoffs in March are senior level positions. The listing with the state Department of Employment and Workforce shows July 26 as the site closure date.
The Cardinal Health WARN report for the March layoffs is the second such report statewide this year. In 2020 there were more than 150 reports statewide. They range from one to more than 2,400 jobs impacted, though most listings fall in the low to mid double digit range. A WARN report with at least 60 days notice is required when large companies intend to lay off significant numbers of employees or close.
Impact of COVID-19
Workers in need of new jobs were plentiful in 2020, as even now the state works to recover from an employment upheaval brought on by COVID-19. The final week before social distancing shut down schools and many businesses in mid-March 2020, South Carolina had fewer than 2,000 initial unemployment claims. A week later there were more than 31,000. At the peak in April there were more than 87,000 claims in a week.
Despite a noticeable tail off since, the week ending Jan. 23 still saw more than 5,000 initial claims statewide.
The most recent week saw 281 initial claims from York, Lancaster and Chester counties. At peak last April, York County alone had more than 3,300 claims in a week.
Last week workforce department executive director Dan Ellzey announced his agency has paid out more than $5 billion in federal and state unemployment benefits since March 15, 2020. It’s nearly as much in 10 months, he said, as the agency paid out the prior 10 years.
This story was originally published February 3, 2021 at 2:07 PM.
