Iowa employers announced more layoffs this month than they have in a year, totaling 656 workers in June, the most since June 2025. Most were in manufacturing.
Leading the cuts, according to the Iowa’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, website, are Whirlpool Corp. and the Iowa Department of Management, which announced June 9 that it would lay off 192 IT workers, effective Aug. 3. Gov. Kim Reynolds said the workers would receive “individualized, competitive job offers” amid the department’s privatization.
Michigan-based Whirlpool’s layoffs at its Middle Amana plant, which once employed 3,000, followed previous announcements as its workforce dwindles to the hundreds. The largest employer in mostly rural Iowa County, Whirlpool has sparred with the union representing its hourly workers over accusations it was sending the jobs to plants it owns in Mexico..
The company previously told the Des Moines Register it plans to invest in the coming years in the Amana facility to “expand operations and upgrade the types of products produced in the facility,” and that the cuts were making way for that project.
Two other manufacturers announced closures, affecting 133 workers. Plastic Products Co. will wind down its West Branch facility in August, and truck body maker BrandFX will close its Swea City plant Aug. 31.
Wells Fargo announced further layoffs at its Jordan Creek campus in West Des Moines June 23, with the 43 employees rounding out June’s job losses and bringing the total laid off at the San Francisco-based bank’s Iowa offices to 228 since February.
Wells Fargo has cut 1,558 jobs in 99 announced layoffs in the Des Moines metro since April 2022, according to WARN data, with many more jobs lost to attrition. Hired in 2019, CEO Charlie Scharf has led a wave of job cuts, paring down the company’s workforce amid an industry shakeup brought on by factors including artificial intelligence.
Israel Schuman covers retailing and jobs for the Des Moines Register. Reach him at ieschuman@registermedia.com.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa layoffs hit 1-year peak led by Whirlpool Corp., Iowa IT job cuts
Reporting by Israel Schuman, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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By Israel Schuman, Des Moines Register | USA TODAY Network
