Impact of Ft. Monmouth Closing: Employee Layoffs May Start Soon

Employees from two companies at Fort Monmouth may be getting their pink slips on Monday.

Two of three companies that provide services to Fort Monmouth already notified New Jersey State Department of Labor and Workforce Development (DOL) that layoffs at their companies may start on April 11. A third company also notified the state that its layoffs could begin on May 2, according to the DOL Web site.

TECOM-Vinnell Services and CTSC, LLC, both of Fort Monmouth, filed a WARN notice with the state back in February. The WARN Act requires employers to provide 60-days notice of plant closings and mass layoffs.

TECOM filed the notice that it could begin layoffs of 120 workers beginning on April 11. CTSC also informed the DOL that its layoffs of 245 employees could begin on the same date.  

A third company, L-3 Services, filed a WARN notice with the state that 150 employees at its company may receive layoff notices starting on May 2. All combined, the three companies employ 525 workers.

Another company, ManTech International Corporation that provides software engineering services to the U.S. Army at Fort Monmouth, announced last week that it won a $22.6 million award to continue to provide services to the Army after the relocation of fort operations to a base in Maryland, according to a press release.

ManTech broke ground on a new facility in Aberdeen, MD, last year, and said in a statement that it expects to have 300 to 500 technology jobs in Aberdeen in the next few years. It did not indicate if any of its employees that offer services to Fort Monmouth would be relocating to Aberdeen. ManTech has not yet filed a WARN notice with the state, according to the state's records.

For its part, the state’s DOL has programs in place to aid displaced workers. Harold J. Wirths, commissioner of the DOL, testified before the State Assembly Budget Committee on April 7 that over the last several years, the agency has received Federal National Emergency Grants totaling $14.3 million, which have helped New Jersey residents affected by pharmaceutical restructurings, shake ups at large financial institutions and the Fort Monmouth closings.

“We feel one of the most cost-effective ways to get New Jerseyans back to work is through On the Job Training,” according to Wirths. ‘This allows us to match a job seeker who has most, but not all the skills required for a job, with an employer.”

Wirth said that it helps both employers—and job seekers “transition into potentially new careers.”

In addition, the state is launching Jobs4Jersey that will connect job seekers and employers thorough a new Web site. The site includes a job bank with more than 165,000 New Jersey job listings, and another 410,000 jobs that are within a 50-mile radius of the state’s borders.

“The Web site is a means to steer job seekers who are surfing the Internet at home, at a one-stop career center or at a local library, toward employers who need skilled workers,” said Wirth.

Unemployed workers can also now certify their unemployment claims on Sundays, said Wirth, as the state extended its Web site service.