Nearly 1,000 Illinois workers in a number of industries are set to be laid off through the first half of the year, a recent spreadsheet from the Illinois Worker Adjustment and Retraining (WARN) Act showed.
According to the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, a total of 985 employees were given layoff notices in November. The majority of those layoffs were set to begin this week and next, with some starting Jan. 19. Not all layoffs qualify for WARN Act notifications, however, since the act only covers companies with 75 or more full-time employees.
Insurance agency and brokerage Norvax LLC, with its corporate headquarters in the Merchandise Mart, began laying off 487 employees as part of a “restructuring,” the WARN report showed. One day after the layoff notice was posted, a class-action law firm, Strauss Borelli, posted it was investigating the “recent potential mass layoff” at Norvax LLC and GoHealth LLC, which share a Chicago office address.
GoHealth did not immediately respond to NBC Chicago’s request for comment.
Other large-scale layoffs include CVS-owned Oak Street Health, which will begin laying off 219 employees Jan. 9. In October, CVS Health said it would close 16 “underperforming” Oak Street Health primary care clinics, including one in Chicago.
Printpack LLC, a manufacturing plant in Elgin, will lay off 111 employees, with its facility set to shut down permanently, according to reports.
Other layoff notices over the last 90 days include:
- Essedant – Greenville (44 employees)
- NSI and Remke Industries – Vernon Hills (42 employees)
- PharmaCann – Dwight (82 employees)
Some employers, including Capital One/Discover, Nordstrom Credit, OSF HealthCare Heart of Mary Medical Center, added additional workers to previously announced layoffs, the latest WARN report said.
A full list of WARN Act layoffs can be found on the Illinois WorkNet Center’s website.
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