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Tom Callan and Alex Cabrero reportingIn one more sign of a softening economy, another Utah business is laying off workers. This time it's KraftMaid Cabinetry in West Jordan.
Even with the layoffs at KraftMaid, economic experts say our economy still looks good, but it is slowing down. However, that doesn't mean anything to those who lost their jobs today.
Last year, many were saying how the new KraftMaid building in West Jordan was going to help parent company MASCO get new customers in the cabinet market. Today, with less cabinets being made because of the slumping housing market, there were layoffs. The news came just after 2:30 this morning on the graveyard shift.
Kathleen Volkes, a spokesperson for KraftMaid, said, "The challenging economic times, including an unprecedented downturn in the U.S. housing market and softening retail activity, have led Masco Cabinet Retail Group to take the difficult decision to reduce both salaried and hourly staff in its West Jordan facility."
Volkes wouldn't say how many jobs are being lost, but those who work at the plant say it is between 200 and 500.
Corie Roche, a supervisor at KraftMaid in West Jordan, said, "With the bad economy the way it is and jobs becoming more and more scarce, there are a lot of people with families that don't know what they're going to do right now."
Roche says KraftMaid blames the anemic economy. "They said it was due to the economy; not a lot of orders for cabinetry right now. KraftMaid does a lot of semi-custom cabinets," he said.
We spoke with the director of the University of Utah's bureau of economic and business research, James Wood. He says even with those layoffs, Utah's economy --with 2.1 percent job growth in the last quarter-- is still among the top three in the country. "We're still seeing job growth, but those sectors related to housing and new construction, we see now negative numbers," he said.
Wood says the housing market is Utah's weakest sector. He points to the KraftMaid Cabinet layoffs, the Lay-Z-Boy layoffs in Box Elder County, and less new construction as evidence. "The housing market, the first quarter numbers are really not very good. We're down 60-percent versus the first quarter of last year. And that's a really sharp retreat."
Even though Utah continues to be among the tops in the nation when it comes to job growth, Wood says there are signs we're slowing down and slowing down fast. From December 2006 to December 2007, there were 50,000 new jobs created in Utah. Starting from April of 2007, 30,000 new jobs were added. That number is good, but when you put it in perspective, it's not nearly as good as before.
E-mail: tcallan@ksl.com
E-mail: acabrero@ksl.com
