LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Michigan employers may still be hanging out plenty of “Help Wanted” signs, but a growing list of companies is also showing thousands of workers the door.
Recent Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notifications (WARN) notices filed with the state show layoffs and facility closures affecting 2,068 Michigan jobs, with cuts stretching from this summer through the end of the year. The losses reach from Metro Detroit to the Upper Peninsula.
641 jobs gone in one shot.
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The biggest single notice comes from alcohol distributor Republic National Distributing Company, which reported 641 jobs affected at operations in Traverse City, Grand Rapids, Livonia, Saginaw and Escanaba. The layoffs begin Aug. 17 and are tied to an acquisition/merger. Republic National Distributing Company is America’s second-largest alcohol distributor.
Fifth Third Bank is also making sizable cuts. A mass layoff in Auburn Hills affects 234 jobs, while another notice covering its Farmington Hills operation lists 502 positions affected by permanent layoffs occurring between July and November.
Elsewhere, SK Siltron CSS is closing facilities in Bay City, affecting at least 130 workers, while a Kroger store closure in Flint will eliminate 68 jobs.
Northern Michigan isn’t escaping the cuts, either. As Michigan News Source reported in June, Rec Boat Holdings has reported 239 jobs affected by its Cadillac closure between August 15 and December 31.
Plenty of job openings – and plenty of jobless workers.
The layoffs come as Michigan continues to struggle with an unemployment rate above the national average. The state’s unemployment rate stood at 5.0% in June, down slightly from 5.1% in May but still well above the national rate of 4.2%. Michigan employment fell by 21,000 during the month, while the state’s labor force declined by 24,000.
And here’s the strange part: employers are still advertising plenty of jobs. State labor-market data showed nearly 222,000 online job advertisements in Michigan in May, including about 87,600 newly posted ads. The total was up nearly 20% from a year earlier and marked Michigan’s highest level of online job advertisements since June 2023.
So Michigan finds itself in an uncomfortable labor-market contradiction: employers are searching for workers while other employers are eliminating thousands of positions.
From Traverse City to Detroit, the cuts add up.
Not all 2,068 jobs will disappear immediately. Some WARN notices cover layoffs already underway, while others extend through December. But the notices offer a snapshot of businesses restructuring, closing facilities, losing contracts or reducing operations across the state. For the workers receiving those notices, Michigan’s thousands of online job postings may soon become more than an economic statistic. They may become the next place for them to send a résumé.
