The most recent round of layoffs at the Volvo Truck plant in Pulaski, Virginia demonstrates one of the toughest realities of the manufacturing sector; it’s often cyclical.
And while it is difficult for workers affected by job cuts, as Robbie Harris reports; there are retraining opportunities there for a changing manufacturing economy.
Scott Tate is Associate Director of Office of Economic Development at Virginia Tech and tracks trends in manufacturing in southwestern Virginia.
He says the recent layoff announced for February at the Volvo plant, which follows several previous rounds, is especially painful because the region is still recovering from numerous job losses in the manufacturing sector.
“Probably in the last 12 to 18 months we’ve seen close to 2,000 jobs lost from manufacturing over all and then you factor in the coal industry, that’s more than 2,000 dislocated workers there in the last year to 18 months," Tate says. "While southwestern Virginia’s manufacturing center remains strong, it’s not as strong as it once was, and the jobs that are available are high skilled, high wage positions."
Many of the jobs that went away were in the automotive or coal industry supply chains, but Tate says, if you look at places like the New River Valley, you see a robust manufacturing sector with a gain of 1,200 new jobs in the last five years and 12,000 people working in the field overall.
“There are still opportunities in the manufacturing sector," Tate says. "The regional work force boards have more funding and support than they’ve had in past years because they’ve been working to secure funds to support dislocated workers. There have been several successful applications that lead to more dislocated worker training. So some of the resources are significant to support dislocated workers in the region.”
Tate says that while southwestern Virginia’s manufacturing center remains strong, it’s not as strong as it once was, and he adds, the jobs that are available are high skilled, high wage positions.
Click here for a link to a Virginia Work Force Board