Alabama employers have announced more than 3,100 jobs cut in mass layoffs this year, already surging past last year\u2019s total.<\/p>\n
Layoffs from nearly two dozen companies resulted in the loss of roughly 3,100 jobs across Alabama so far in 2025, according to WARN notices filed with the state. Half of those employers told the state they were permanently closing their facilities or leaving Alabama altogether.<\/p>\n
But overall, employment is up in Alabama \u2013 including in industries like manufacturing, which account for one third of this year\u2019s projected mass layoffs.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur industries aren\u2019t showing decline at this point,\u201d said Jonathan McNair, public relations officer for the Alabama Department of Workforce. \u201cWe\u2019re doing very, very well in Alabama, as far as a record number of people that are actually working in the state right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mass layoffs are classified as those in which a company that employs at least 100 people lays off 50 or more workers. Federal law \u2013 the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act \u2013 requires those large employers to file a public notice with the state 60 days in advance of mass layoffs or plant closures. Those WARN notices are published by the Alabama Department of Commerce.<\/p>\n
The number of employed workers in Alabama has increased by 1.1% since July 2024, up to 2.3 million<\/a>. Alabama\u2019s labor force participation rate has hovered at or just below 58% for all of 2025 so far, meaning 58% of working-age residents are either employed or actively looking for work. And the state\u2019s unemployment rate<\/a> was 3% as of July, which is the sixth lowest rate in the country, sitting below the national rate of 4.2%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.<\/p>\n So what\u2019s happening between the shift in closures and layoffs, and other employers that are retaining more workers? It could be explained by the state attracting larger employers to Alabama to set up operations, McNair said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhere there\u2019s a big industry shift, the larger companies are coming in, or we\u2019re attracting larger businesses, then a smaller business may contract while another one expands,\u201d he said, \u201cwhich ends in a net growth in employment, in a net growth in workforce. This directly corresponds to us having a record number of people employed.\u201d<\/p>\n But the benefits are unclear for the local economies in smaller towns in many of Alabama\u2019s rural communities that struggle to attract larger employers.<\/p>\n The layoff announcements so far this year mark a big spike compared to the past couple of years, according to an AL.com<\/a> analysis of WARN notices filed in Alabama since 2020.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n [Can\u2019t see the chart? Click here<\/a>.]<\/p>\n Last year, nearly 2,000 workers<\/a> in Alabama were impacted by 21 mass layoffs and closures, dipping much closer to pre-pandemic levels. This year, Alabama passed that total by May.<\/p>\n In 2023, 30 mass layoffs and closures \u2014 primarily in the manufacturing industry<\/a> \u2014 affected more than 4,000 workers. In 2021 and 2022, mass layoffs dipped drastically, affecting only about 800 Alabama jobs each year. <\/p>\n The start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 saw mass layoffs peak with more than 5,000 jobs cut.<\/p>\n McNair pointed out that many workers caught up in mass layoffs and closures often find work quickly before needing to file unemployment.<\/p>\n And in some cases, an employer can decide to circumvent the closure or layoff, or another contractor replaces the employer and keeps the same employees, though they\u2019re not required to report that information to the state, McNair added.<\/p>\n \u201cThe idea that the layoffs are actual people losing their jobs I think is misleading,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s what the projection is from a certain number of companies that met that criteria that they had to make that notification of what they believe will happen to their company in the next couple months.\u201d<\/p>\n Each mass layoff in 2025 affected an average of 139 jobs. The largest kicked off the new year in January, when the Big Lots Distribution Center<\/a> in Montgomery closed, impacting nearly 500 workers. Two other smaller layoffs in Montgomery brought the state\u2019s capital to report the highest share of job cuts, though one of them, Oracle America<\/a>, was reportedly a contract change that didn\u2019t impact local jobs.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n [Can\u2019t see the chart? Click here<\/a>.]<\/p>\n In Alabama, more than one third of the announced cuts were in the transportation and warehousing industry (35%), primarily at distribution centers across the state. Another third was in manufacturing (29%) \u2013 a top industry in the state. Manufacturing employment grew 1.4% in Alabama between July 2024 and July 2025, according to the most recent BLS numbers. <\/p>\n That included at least three auto parts manufacturers: Federal-Mogul Motorparts<\/a> in Boaz, WKW North America LLC<\/a> in Pell City, and Nitto Inc.<\/a> in Jasper.<\/p>\n Just behind Montgomery, the Mobile metro also saw a high share of job cuts in the state so far this year, with three employers cutting nearly 600 jobs combined, per the WARN notices. That included 150 employees at the Alabama Orthopaedic Clinic, which closed its doors in April<\/a> after struggling to recruit new physicians, meet rising costs and dwindling reimbursements.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n [Can\u2019t see the map? Click here<\/a>.]<\/p>\n And in May, VT Mobile Aerospace Engineering \u2013 one of Mobile\u2019s biggest aerospace companies <\/a>\u2013 cut 300 jobs from its local operations, moving the work to its sites in Florida and Texas. Some of those employees were given the option to transfer to Pensacola or San Antonio, said Bradley Byrne, president and CEO of the Mobile Chamber of Commerce.<\/p>\n Then, German specialty chemicals company Bilfinger Inc. reported 143 jobs cut at a Theodore plant in April. Company officials at Evonik, which operates the plant, said the cuts were due to a contract that ended.<\/p>\n Byrne said he sees it as a coincidence, not a trend \u2013 in a county that claimed nearly a third of all new jobs<\/a> announced across the state last year.<\/p>\n \u201cThis one statistic is not concerning to us,\u201d Byrne said, adding that the county announced 1,700 new jobs this year and that the chamber has hired a marketing firm to recruit more workers around the country to Mobile. \u201cOur big need in Mobile is more workers, not more jobs.\u201d <\/p>\n Byrne said that most of the healthcare workers at the Alabama Orthopaedic Clinic found jobs at another practice, as did workers with the area\u2019s other two mass layoffs.<\/p>\n \u201cNone of that troubles us,\u201d he said. \u201cThe fact that all three of those in different industries happened in the same year is just a coincidence.\u201d<\/p>\n This year\u2019s projected mass layoffs appeared to cluster around springtime. About two-thirds of the mass layoffs were scheduled between March and May this year, with 30% in April alone. That includes nearly 250 cuts in the closure of Joann\u2019s Distribution Center<\/a> in Opelika after the crafting and fabrics retailer filed for bankruptcy.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, total layoffs for Alabama \u2013 which includes cuts by large and small businesses across industries \u2013 is on pace with last year\u2019s count.<\/p>\n In the first six months of 2025, total layoffs for the state tallied 132,000, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics<\/a>.<\/p>\n Through the same period last year, the state reported 135,000 layoffs, according to BLS numbers.<\/p>\n The state\u2019s workforce agency uses the layoff notices as information to help support workers if they\u2019re going to experience disruptions to their employment, McNair said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe use that list as outreach for us to reach out to our employer partners to see if there\u2019s anything we can do to assist their employees,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not a situation where we can preemptively just show up at a business and kick the doors in and say, \u2018Okay, we\u2019re helping everybody here get a job.<\/p>\n \u201cBut if a company wants us to come in and help during that transition, which we have, we\u2019re able to do that,\u201d McNair added.<\/p>\n If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. 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