There’s major economic news out of East Texas. The closure of two manufacturing plants in Marshall and Jefferson, Texas will mean the loss of more than 350 jobs. Cabinetwork’s Master Woodcraft announced this week that the two plants will close in September as part of the company’s restructuring plans. Rush Harris is executive director of the Marshall Economic Development Corporation (EDC). And Harris says they have been in touch with Workforce Solutions East Texas to find solutions to help affected employees. “We also have a business and education council that we call WE Align, or Workforce & Education Alignment Group, that works with each other and talks about skills development, skills needs from the four colleges that are in our city limits. So we’re extremely fortunate in that regard to have that educational facilities and business sit down and talk to each other. And we look forward to having a discussion with them later this month.” Harris says some local companies have already begun inquiring about hiring some of the soon-to-be laid off workers.
The Cabinetworks Group, which owns the two manufacturing plants, points to the forecasted slowdown of multi-family starts and completions as the reason for the closures in Marshall and Jefferson, Texas. They plan to leverage “capacity at more modernized and efficient manufacturing plants within its remaining 16-facility network.”
The plant closures are a sad ending for a company that first opened in 2008 as Master WoodCraft Cabinetry and quickly grew. The business endured the worst construction downturn in America from 2009 to 2011 during the Great Recession. In that time, America lost 200 cabinet companies. Then the company survived a devastating fire in September 2011. Yet, within nine years of opening, the owners [the Ponder Family] were completing a $2 million expansion by August 2017. The work expanded their capacity by 15% and added another 35 jobs at the time. The Marshall, TX EDC also played a role in the expansion by providing a $75,000 incentive to assist the company.
Less than a year later, on June 4, 2018, Master WoodCraft Cabinetry was sold to ACPI (ACProducts Inc.) with the retirement of Gene and Patsy Ponder. Just days later, the Ponders gave out more than $1.2 million in bonuses from profits of the sale to current and former employees, according to a report by The Marshall News Messenger.
Looking at the larger economic picture of Texas, statewide the average unemployment rate stands at 4.0%. By comparison, it is 4.3% for East Texas, with well over 400,000 people in the local labor force. That’s according to figures provided by the U.S. Bureau of Statistics and the Workforce Solutions East Texas, which also lists more than 33,000 businesses in the region.
For some context, the Marshall jobless rate is down a tenth of a percent year-to-date. That’s a far cry from the 12.2% unemployment rate in East Texas during the COVID-19 pandemic. Harris recalls that it was around that time period the area experienced the most recent mass layoff, of roughly the same number of jobs lost, when a distribution company closed.
