Longaberger Rehires 50 Employees

• Posted by System October 16, 2009 - Filed in Archive - 287 views
  More employees are going through the door at basket maker Longaberger Co., but they?re headed the opposite direction than in recent years.

  The Newark-based basket and home products manufacturer and retailer said Monday that it is recalling 50 basket makers to its Frazeysburg facility this week. The move, the company said, is in response to a better-than-expected sales of new baskets featuring National Football League and college football logos and optimism for the holiday season.

  Longaberger in the past year has made two mass layoffs, cutting 73 workers last November in Frazeysburg and in February letting go nearly 300 employees, including 175 manufacturing workers in its basket-making, distribution and woodcrafts divisions. Those moves brought payroll down to about 1,400, down from more than 8,000 earlier this decade.