Store and plant closures drove Illinois employers to announce more than 1,000 planned layoffs in February, according to a monthly report released Monday by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.
Carson’s and Bergner’s will lay off a total of 330 employees in Illinois as they close area stores. Both chains are owned by Bon-Ton Stores, which filed for bankruptcy protection last month. Carson’s stores are set to close in Chicago, Morton Grove, Schaumburg, DeKalb and Danville. A Bergner’s in Peoria, employing 96 workers, is also set for closure, according to the report.
Siemens Industry, which makes controls and automated systems, said it expects to lay off 200 people at a West Chicago facility. Those employees were notified Feb. 8, according to the filing, and the layoffs are planned for the last two weeks of April.
Siemens said that demand for the products made in West Chicago has been slowing for several years, and the workload remaining there no longer requires a separate production site. Some product lines have been moved to other U.S. facilities, the company said.
Israel-based Teva Pharmaceutical Industries will lay off its 101 Illinois employees as part of a broader restructuring announced late last year. Teva said it started laying off workers last month but the layoffs won’t be complete until the end of the year.
Other planned layoffs reported to the state include 75 workers at iCall Services in Oglesby; 89 at freight forwarding company MOL (America) in Lombard; and 79 at Imperial Marble in Somonauk, which makes countertops but lost a contract.
Amcor Rigid Plastics, which is closing a plant in Batavia that manufactures plastic bottles for the food industry, also announced it plans 75 additional layoffs on top of the 110 it announced last summer.
The Illinois Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act requires employers with at least 75 workers to notify the state 60 days in advance of a plant closing or mass layoff, which is defined as one that affects at least a third of its workforce, or at least 250 workers at a company of any size.
Twitter @SamWillTravel
