MN layoffs are trending higher, earlier in the year

(FOX 9) - Just weeks into the new year, there have already been several new mass layoff announcements at companies across Minnesota.

Employers reacting to uncertain future

WARN notices filed:

The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) announced several new WARN letters it received for the start of this new year.

In its notices, the state said at least four of these new filings intended to conduct mass layoffs in Minnesota of 100 or more employees.

On average, the total number for an entire year of companies cutting more than 100 workers in the state is typically around single digits.

Multiple industries impacted

Dig deeper:

According to a notice from Minnesota DEED, the parent company of Shop HQ filed notice that it will be laying off around 122 employees from its Eden Prairie location in 2025.

Danish engineering company Danfoss also filed with the state that it will be laying off about 110 employees from its Eden Prairie plant. This will happen in phases throughout this year before it permanently closes its plant.

Digital River, a Minnetonka e-commerce company, is permanently closing its offices and laying off all its 122 employees.

Another announcement in the first few weeks of the new year will be hitting the small town of Benson, CNH Industrial America, which makes agricultural equipment, is laying off approximately 175 employees from its plant there.

These layoffs are expected to be completed this year.

What they're saying:

One talent-acquisition expert told FOX 9 the decisions point to an uncertainty being felt across industries in the regional job market.

Paul DeBettignies has decades of experience based in the Twin Cities, saying several factors may be impacting these major decisions.

"The timing of this is not normal. You would normally see this November, December, we did see a few then, too," said DeBettignies. "Still trying to figure out what’s going to happen with interest rates. We have a new administration. So, on top of what was already a fairly flat, boring, stuck in the mud Minnesota economy, we now add some uncertainty as well. Post COVID Summer 2020, the 2021 Great Resignation. You had shareholders and investors telling companies to hire, just hire - that it was grow at all costs. Now it has been, conserve cash, run lean. The hard part is the cost to all of this are humans, people."