280 S.C. workers to lose jobs

SECTION: D; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 240 words

By JIM DuPLESSIS; Staff writer
About 280 workers in Florence and Greenville will lose their jobs in coming months, as factories continue to cut employees and close plants in South Carolina.

Even as experts this week released reports predicting the economy's imminent rebound, the job losses continued in South Carolina:

* DuPont Teijin Films said Thursday it would lay off about 100 people by the end of the year at its Florence plant. About 300 employees and contract workers will remain, making Mylar and other polyester film.

* Pilliod Furniture cut 60 jobs at its Nichols manufacturing plant in Marion County, according to the Florence Morning News. The newspaper said the 26-year-old plant previously cut 30 jobs in March. It had 300 jobs, according to S.C. Commerce Department data.

* Albany International Corp. will close its Greenville plant for making press fabrics for paper mills, putting 120 out of work.

Those losses come on top of 24,400 jobs lost in South Carolina since July 2002, 8,400 of them in Columbia. Total nonfarm jobs have fallen each month since January in South Carolina.

Factory workers have been hardest hit. One in 17 has lost his or her job in the past year: 1,500 in Columbia and 15,600 across the rest of the state.

USC economist Don Schunk issued a report Thursday showing a strong gain in indicators of the state's future economic health, suggesting factory output and jobs are poised for gains.

"The key indicators to watch in the coming months will be jobless claims and total nonfarm employment," Schunk wrote. "A strengthening economy will reveal itself in those two figures."