Local Layoffs
By: Courtnee Hembree
Updated: February 20, 2009
Abilene unemployment is still better than the national average, but store closings and layoffs are happening locally. Some businesses are closing their doors, while others are laying off employees just to try and stay afloat.
Local businesses that are laying off employees are cutting back, not because of the local economy, but because of the national and global markets.
Many are hoping to rehire in a couple of months once the credit crisis stabilizes, but until then, the few employees left are having to pick up the slack.
One woman who works at Art Carr Performance Products commented on the change.
"We had to adjust. In other words, now I wear jeans instead of my corporate business suits and I get back there and do some of the work now. We have to all pull together because this is for all of our jobs to be able to keep the business going."
Art Carr Performance Products was already a small business with just eleven employees, but just recently they had to cut back to 6; laying off several employees that had been with them for years.
