Plastech closing Anoka plant, laying off all 71 workers

Plastech Corporation is closing its plant in Anoka and laying off all 71 of its employees.

In its letter to the state of Minnesota, the company wrote it will "permanently cease all operations and terminate all employees."

The layoffs are expected to be effective April 14.

"The equipment in that facility is very outdated," Jerry Miller, general manager of Plastech, said of the Anoka plastic injection molding facility.

The company is adding new manufacturing space to its flagship plant in Rush City, where the company is based.

"We're doing an expansion here and we're consolidating," Miller said.

Laid-off employees have an opportunity to land jobs in Rush City.

"We've offered them all jobs," Miller said.

The federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act requires companies to give employees advance notice of large layoffs. Employers must file WARN notification for any layoff of 50 more employees at a single site.

Minnesota has largely dodged the waves of large layoffs hitting U.S. companies, particularly the tech industry.

But the state's steady job growth did not carry into December. The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development reported a loss of 5,200 jobs for the month, driven by a drop in government employment. It pushed the state unemployment rate to 2.5% from 2.3%.

Recent weeks have seen several new layoff notices pop up.

In late January, Amazon filed a WARN letter indicating that it would be laying off approximately 680 people as it shut down its Shakopee sorting center.

Shutterfly had announced plans to lay off 97 employees a few days earlier.

At the start of the month Bright Health disclosed plans to lay off 68 employees at its Bloomington headquarters, just three months after cutting 99 jobs there.