SAN ANTONIO – As the coronavirus pandemic continues, more San Antonio employers are submitting layoff notices.
The federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification requires Texas employers to give employees a 60-day layoff notice if the number of employees laid off makes up at least a third of the employer’s workforce. The companies also have to have at least 100 full-time employees.
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However, the required 60-day notice is waived under unforeseeable business circumstances and natural disasters.
Several companies in the San Antonio area have been reporting their layoffs to the Texas Workforce Commission, the most recent of which include Halliburton and the YMCA.
On March 19, the YMCA notified the state that 1,679 employees they were being furloughed.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in unprecedented changed in our community,” an official wrote in the layoff notice. “These changes have caused the YMCA to significantly reduce its operations.”
The YMCA said they expect to resume normal operations “in the near future."
On April 7, Halliburton laid off 384 employees in Elmendorf.
“The layoff is expected to be a permanent employment loss,” officials wrote in that layoff notice.
Molak Corp., which owns several restaurants in New Braunfels and San Antonio, also submitted a layoff notice on April 9. The New Braunfels-based corporation notified the Texas Workforce Commission 305 of its employees were laid off in March.
The company owns Down on Grayson, Josephine Street Cafe, Gristmill River Restaurant and Bar and Gruene Hall.
They layoff notices only present a narrow view how high unemployment has surged in Texas.
Across the country, more than 5 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week alone. More than 20 million are estimated to have lost their jobs since the coronavirus pandemic began.
In Texas, more than 1 million people lost their jobs and filed unemployment claims.