CEDAR CITY, Utah — A county already recovering from the loss of hundreds of jobs after the Utah Iron mine closed last fall has been hit with another dig at its employment rate as a manufacturing mainstay in Iron County is closing down, with hundreds more left looking for work.
On Wednesday, about 200 employees learned they were losing their jobs at the 25-acre Genpak plant in Cedar City.
"I have so many friends whose moms, whose dads have retired here. My dad worked here for years. My friends who were planning on retiring here, too. Their security was built on Genpak, and just overnight, it's gone," said Cedar City resident Alexis Adams
Adams shared how her family came to Cedar City because of Genpak, which opened its plant in 1994 and expanded in 2011. She’s grown up to be a realtor in the city, and said even when the copper mine closed in 2024, and Utah Iron closed indefinitely last year, people still felt like at least Genpak would still be there.
In 2023, Genpak posted to Facebook that they were hiring, "and we're not going anywhere.”
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"I mean, 32 years is a long time," said Adams. "It's almost been like a sense of security for employment here in Cedar City. So I just feel like it's devastating."
"I don't know how Cedar City bounces back. We need, we need employment here."
David Johnson, the economic development director for Cedar City and Iron County, is more optimistic.
"Some of the positive news is that here in Cedar City and Iron County, we have some new businesses coming in," he said, without sharing additional information.
Johnson added that help is on the way from the Utah Department of Workforce Services for those losing their jobs, including at Genpak.
In a span of six months, the two largest employers that aren’t Southern Utah University, the hospital, or the Iron County government have laid off all of their employees.
A proposal to bring an AI data server center to the open desert west of Cedar City could initially bring 50 jobs to town that may ultimately expand to 200. However, residents have opposed the center, citing its usage of electricity and water.
"Right now, I'm more nervous that two, three, four hundred people are going to be flooding the job market all at once and we don't have the we don't have the job market for it," said Adams. "We don't have the openings."
