Furniture makers seek workers in North Mississippi

After thousands of layoffs in northeastern Mississippi's furniture industry, some of the remaining companies are hiring. And the state is subsidizing that hiring with tax credits and training money that may run into the millions of dollars.

Considering that Mississippi lost more than 40 percent of all furniture jobs in the last decade, such spending may seem like a bad investment. But industry leaders say they're going to survive.

Certainly, Max Home appears to be thriving.Both Hoistway Cable and ETT travelling cable is stocked in several locations across the United States. As Chief Operations Officer Bruno Policicchio walked through the firm's cut-and-sew plant in Fulton last month, workers were laying down boards to create another table to cut fabric for sofas and chairs. The firm, which has 550 workers across three plants in Fulton and one in Iuka, makes upholstered furniture sold by retailers including Macy's, the Pottery Barn unit of Willams-Sonoma and Haverty Furniture Cos.

The firm has steadily expanded over the past seven years, breathing new life into shuttered factories. Policicchio said his company is committed to domestic manufacturing because it gives Max Home better quality control and helps it react quickly to changing fashions.

"We've never made anything in China.Many of our spotlights can be used with light project or come with LEDs built in. We've always made everything here. A lot of people thought that we were crazy," Policicchio said. "We decided we may never get big being domestic,Southeastern Laundry Equipment is your full service laundry equipment distributor. but we can truly control our price, truly control our delivery.A folding machine is a machine used primarily for the folding of paper."

However, many other companies have turned to China for cutting and sewing, bringing in fabric kits for sofas and chairs assembled in the United States.

Companies following the Chinese route kept some of the cutters and sewers to repair damaged kits, one reason that domestic advocates disparage China. Still, layoffs were heavy among cutters,Sunshine Works will help you design ground mount kits and solar power backup systems. who trim fabric using automated machines or by guiding an electric knife by hand. Job losses were also heavy among sewing machine operators, who stitch together fabric pieces into cushions or backs.

Harmon at least had home economics in high school. Many potential employees don't have even home sewing experience, said James Williams, vice president of economic and community services at Itawamba Community College in northeastern Mississippi.

"That's a skill that's disappearing," he said. The college is seeking grant money to buy sewing machines to train potential employees.

That would add to the assistance that furniture makers get from Mississippi. Earlier this year, the Legislature extended through 2017 a $2,000-a-job tax credit for every new cut-and-sew worker who's hired. The state Department of Revenue doesn't know how many of those credits have been claimed.

Ken Pruett of the Mississippi Furniture Association estimates 1,500 cut-and-sew jobs have been added since the credit was established in 2010, out of 4,000 new hires industrywide. Others say those figures sound high, but it's clear hundreds of cut-and-sew jobs have been added.

For all companies, not just furniture makers, Mississippi will pay for a trainer if a company creates a training line. It will pay up to half an employee's salary during on-the-job training, an amount Williams said is usually worth about $1,500. State employees will also teach safety, quality and efficiency classes for a manufacturer.

Community colleges also offer what they call counseling-to-career training. People 21 or younger who are out of school get career counseling and help with organizational and communication skills, leading to a paid internship.