RANTOUL — A Rantoul industry's seasonal layoffs are expected to be below the levels of the past few years.
Twenty-one employees at Jeld-Wen, which manufactures windows and patio doors, took voluntary layoffs earlier this month. Teri Cline, the company's director of communications, said starting this week, additional layoffs will be made.
"Starting this week, we're announcing some involuntary layoffs," she said.
"By sometime in January, we expect the number to hit 51."
That number includes the 21 voluntary layoffs.
The number compares with 76 layoffs last winter and 90 in 2009.
Cline said the plant employed about 370 before layoffs.
Of the lower layoff figures, Cline said, "Business levels are such that we don't anticipate putting as many employees on layoff as the last several winters."
She said callbacks to work are expected "as early as February or March," depending on the economy and the weather.
Cline said the company's products are made to order and there is not a lot of stockpiling.
"When the weather turns for the majority of the nation, there's less building that happens," Cline said. "We really have a seasonal business."
The Rantoul plant, which is one of Rantoul's largest employers, is in the industrial park.
The plant is owned by Jeld-Wen Inc., a privately held windows and doors company — a $2 billion-a-year business that employs 20,000 in 22 countries and 26 U.S. states.
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