Major Employers Begin Furloughs And Cutbacks

Two major Middle Tennessee employers have announced employee furloughs and a third is scaling back its manufacturing.

The shoe and accessory retailer Genesco says 90% of its local corporate workforce will be on furlough, with its highest-paid leaders foregoing some salary. The company had already closed more than a thousand stores and furloughed its retail staff.

The teeth-straightening company SmileDirectClub has furloughed much of its Nashville headquarters and retail staff for roughly the next month. Top executives will not be paid during that time.

Meanwhile, LP building materials says it is reducing its production of wood paneling and siding products by about a third. The company is cutting spending in several areas, but notes an overall strong forecast for housing construction bodes well for its balance sheet.

The economy has been reeling from the coronavirus pandemic, with record-setting rises in unemployment claims. Tennessee recorded more than 90,000 unemployment filings in the most recent week available.

The state is also seeing mass layoffs.

Companies have notified the state of more than 2,700 layoffs in the past week. That includes more than 800 employees of Salga Plastics in Gallatin; more than 800 Chartwell Hospitality workers in three counties; and more than 200 each at auto industry suppliers Takahata Precision in Scott County and ZF Active Safety and Electronics in Lebanon.