Kenworth to lay off at least 350 workers as hundreds of semis sit idle

Hundreds of PACCAR employees will be let go from an Ohio Kenworth plant amid a chip shortage.

At least 350 workers will be laid off from PACCAR’s Chillicothe, Ohio, Kenworth truck manufacturing plant as of September 10, according to local news outlet Scioto Valley Guardian.

The layoffs were announced at a plant-wide meeting in late August.

The outlet says that hundreds of already manufactured Kenworth trucks are sitting idle at the plant and at the Ross County Fairgrounds because of a microchip shortage caused by the pandemic.

The company planned to assemble the trucks and insert the chips when they became available.

Other auto manufacturers including Toyota, General Motors, Ford, and Nissan have been forced to shut down manufacturing plants due to the ongoing chip shortage, which experts say could last into 2023.

In 2020, hundreds of workers were laid off at the Chillicothe plant after the company cut the daily truck build rate.