Monday, WAAY31 learned Tarkett in Florence is closing one of its departments.
Corporate Tarkett officials said they’re closing their vinyl composition tile department at the Florence west location.
Company officials said this will start Jan. 1.
“Any type of change like that that you’re not expecting is tough,” said Dr. Jason Imbrogno, an associate professor of economics and finances at the University of North Alabama.
Imbrogno said his heart goes out to those Tarkett employees losing their jobs in a few months, but it’s a trend of declining manufacturing jobs impacting the Shoals and other areas.
“We’ve lost about 1,000 jobs in the manufacturing sector since about May or June of ’19. It went farther down right as Covid really became a concern last year, and it’s slowly crept back up,” said Imbrogno.
Imbrogno said the loss of these jobs won’t have a huge impact on the Shoals economy, but it’s a sign of the times.
“This area has unfortunately been shedding manufacturing jobs, and this is just going to contribute to it,” he said.
“And when we’re talking numbers in our Shoals area, you know right now there are about 8,000 to 8,500 employed in manufacturing. So, 50 people losing jobs – it’s not sero, it’s not a significant percentage of that – but it’s more than if this happened in New York City.”
Tarkett officials did not say why they are closing the VCT department.
WAAY 31 has asked this question. We are waiting on a response.
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