JLG Layoffs Affect 500 Positions Globally

November 20, 2008 – JLG Industries, McConnellsburg, Pa., has announced a third round of layoffs this year. The layoffs will affect about 500 positions globally, both full and part-time, as well as production and salaried positions. Craig Paylor, JLG president and executive vice president of Oshkosh Corporation called the layoffs “unavoidable.”

The downsizing affects many of the company’s locations around the world, including the McConnellsburg and Shippensburg locations in Pennsylvania, the Hagerstown, Md., location, and the company’s Atlanta service center, among others, according to Kirsten Skyba, JLG’s vice president of global marketing.

Paylor said that economic conditions have continued their unprecedented deterioration since mid-September, which has led construction markets to intensify their slide over the past two months. “We’ve seen a particularly strong downturn in Europe, which has now followed the slowdown in North America,” he said.

 
"Financial instability, credit availability and continued weak construction continue to drive lower demand for our products globally,” Paylor continued. “Since late August, when we realigned our production and employment levels for the second time this year, conditions have worsened for the near term. Customers have simply become very cautious during this period of economic uncertainty.

“Decisions like these are extremely difficult and were made only after extensive thought. This workforce reduction was unavoidable, but that doesn’t make the decision to downsize any easier. We do believe, however, that this is the right move to help JLG remain healthy through this recession and to come out of it ready to capitalize on the upswing."