Clayton Homes Lays Off 135 Workers

Clayton Homes, the nation’s largest maker & financier of prefab and mobile homes, is laying off 135 workers from its manufacturing facility in Giles County, Tennessee; about 1% of the county’s total workforce.

The layoffs are expected to be completed by March 6th, according to the Tennessee Department of Labor.

Giles County, south of Nashville, has a total workforce of about 13,500. Giles had an unemployment rate of 8.6% in November, the last month reported. That was up from 6.5% in November 2007.

Last fall Clayton Homes announced layoffs at the company’s headquarters in Maryville, Tennessee and the idling of plants in Hodgenville, Kentucky and Milton, Pennsylvania, with a total of 370 employees affected.

Clayton Homes, a subsidiary of Nebraska-based Berkshire Hathaway, had employed more than 14,000 people at 43 plants.