Three Iowa employers reported layoffs affecting a total of 91 workers in May, led by the loss of 47 jobs with the closing of Rhiner’s Plumbing Co. Inc. in Clive, according to Iowa’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, website.
The WARN site has reported a total of 1,713 layoffs at 13 organizations so far in 2026, with Whirlpool Corp. in Amana making the largest single reduction, 341 workers in March. Other large announcements so far this year were the layoff of 209 workers with the closing of the CNH Industrial America plant in Burlington and MercyOne laying off 141 workers at locations in Des Moines, Mason City and Ottumwa.
Two other announced layoffs of more than 100 people each were expected to be mitigated by the rehiring of the affected employees.
Ryder System announced in early April that its management of a warehouse in Waterloo would transition to HODGE, based in Dubuque, prompting the WARN announcement of 153 layoffs. However, officials from Ryder told KWWL-TV that they plan to transition all of the workers to HODGE.
Similarly, the Waterloo school district announced in early April that it would be changing from First Student to Durham School Services for operation of its buses starting next school year, resulting in 120 layoffs. But KCRG-TV reported it is likely most of the bus drivers will be hired by Durham.
The two other companies reporting layoffs in May were UnityPoint Health and Wells Fargo, both located in West Des Moines.
UnityPoint announced it would be adding 14 employees to a previous notice about the layoff of 189 employees at 11 other locations in Iowa, with all 203 effective July 24. The health care provider has said the layoffs are due to its information technology functions being outsourced to another company.
Wells Fargo on May 12 announced the layoff of 29 employees effective July 11 and added another employee on May 26, bringing the total to 30 for the month.
Wells Fargo has cut 65,000 of the 275,000 positions it had nationwide in 2019, when CEO Charlie Scharf joined the company. In the Des Moines metro, it has pared its workforce in 11 rounds of layoffs since September, eliminating 351 jobs.
Since April 2022, the San Francisco-based company has cut 1,602 central Iowa jobs in 100 announced layoffs, according to WARN data, with many more jobs lost to attrition.
Kevin Baskins covers jobs and the economy for the Des Moines Register. Reach him at kbaskins@registermedia.com.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Clive plumbing company and Wells Fargo lead May Iowa layoffs
Reporting by Kevin Baskins, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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