{"id":143748,"date":"2026-01-30T06:26:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T06:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/143748\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T06:26:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T06:26:10","slug":"dow-chemical-laying-off-almost-5000-employees-causing-concern-in-greater-houston-area-freeport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/143748\/","title":{"rendered":"Dow Chemical laying off almost 5,000 employees causing concern in greater Houston area, Freeport"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/vhv80s0bto3of5g1.jpg\" alt=\"DOW Chemical lays off 4,500 workers\" class=\"sr-only\" data-v-4292be72=\"\"\/>  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox26houston.com\/video\/fmc-wsjk6acq9pbbmrcg\" data-v-4292be72=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">DOW Chemical lays off 4,500 workers<\/a> <\/p>\n<p data-v-4292be72=\"\">News of Dow Chemical laying off almost 5,000 employees is causing concern in the greater Houston area, especially Freeport. FOX 26&#8217;s Randy Wallace has more.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">HOUSTON &#8211; Dow Chemical is a major employer in Freeport. It was established in 1940 and spans more than 7,000 acres.<\/p>\n<p>   Freeport Dow Chemical: Almost 5,000 employees to be laid off <\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">The chemical complex in Freeport is one of the largest in the world with more than 40 plants that produce 44% of Dow&#8217;s products in the U.S. and 20% worldwide.<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">Dow says it will lay off almost 15% of its workforce, almost 5,000 employees.<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">Dow is important for Freeport.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KRIV\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-2899190a=\"\">What they&#8217;re saying:<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">&#8220;Dow employs about 7,000 people at its site and also uses another 4,500 hundred contractors in the vicinity,&#8221; said Andrew Lipow, President of Lipow Oil Associates Consulting Firm. &#8220;The loss of a significant number of jobs is going to be a big impact.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">The reasons for the layoffs: a shift to AI automation and completion in the petrochemical industry.<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">&#8220;A lot of the big plants are being built in the Middle East as well as China,&#8221; said Lipow.<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">While specifics of how and where the layoffs will occur are unknown, the news isn&#8217;t good for small business owners in Freeport.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">&#8220;I know a lot of people who work at Dow,&#8221; said Ivan Isais, owner of Stay Faded King&#8217;s Barbershop. &#8220;I hope they&#8217;re safe. Dow brings a lot of customers to us.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">FOX 26 spoke to Freeport Mayor Jerry Cain. He told us, &#8220;We have not received info on the specific impacts on Freeport. We will continue to monitor the situation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"group-source-paragraph\" data-v-4fbf7207=\"\">The Source: FOX 26 Reporter Randy Wallace spoke with Andrew Lipow, President of Lipow Oil Associates Consulting Firm, as well as nearby business owners about the situation.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox26houston.com\/tag\/us\/tx\/brazoria-county\/freeport\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-2899190a=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Freeport<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox26houston.com\/tag\/news\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-2899190a=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">News<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox26houston.com\/tag\/top-stories\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-2899190a=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Top Stories<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DOW Chemical lays off 4,500 workers News of Dow Chemical laying off almost 5,000 employees is causing concern&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143749,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[13358,60282,56,58,57,223,2053,216,393],"class_list":{"0":"post-143748","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-brazoria-county","9":"tag-freeport","10":"tag-houston","11":"tag-houston-headlines","12":"tag-houston-news","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-top-stories","15":"tag-tx","16":"tag-us"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}