While Butler County has lost nearly 1,300 jobs in the first six months of 2011 and an additional 400 impending job losses are expected to occur in West Chester Township by the fall, there is still confidence among the trustees and the township administrator that the community will continue to thrive.
“While the economy has crashed and the state of Ohio has lost between 400,000 to 600,000 jobs … in the two recent recessions that we have went through, in West Chester we have added $2.2 billion in new commercial construction, $24 million square feet of new commercial property and over 26,000 jobs,” West Chester Trustee George Lang said referring to the two recessions experienced this decade.
In May of 2011, however, two local businesses, BAE Systems and CEVA Logistics US Inc., announced plans to slash another 400 jobs this fall.
For BAE, which employed roughly 1,800 workers at the start of 2010, the latest cuts could drop its total workforce to 430 people. Meanwhile, CEVA Logistics is closing its local operations after Dell Computers decided to eliminate its 194 positions from the West Chester facility and transfer it to a new location.
In addition to that, Lakota Local Schools has recently eliminated 78 positions for the 2011-2012 school year and Liz Clairborne officials announced in June that it was going to close its West Chester based distribution center, which employs roughly 400 workers, in 2012.
“Many people want to focus on the job losses and rightfully so because it does significantly impact peoples’ lives,” West Chester Township Administrator Judith Boyko said. “However, I think that it is important to remember that we are in the fourth year of an economic downturn, yet the majority of West Chester businesses have sustained their operations amidst this volatile economy.” (more…)
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