Laid off from Carrier.

What Carrier layoffs have meant for employees

The national fight over Carrier's Indianapolis plant decided which work stayed in the city more than whether people lost their jobs. Carrier said in December 2016 that its fan coil department would go to Mexico while the plant kept making gas furnaces, VOA News reported, and the fan coil layoffs still came, in two waves, WRTV reported. For the people who ran those lines, watching the work move to another country was a hard way to lose a job. Those workers left under a severance agreement United Steelworkers Local 1999 signed with Carrier in 2016, which a union representative said beat what their contract had called for, IndyStar reported, while the local's president, Chuck Jones, said they deserved a lot more. The wages show what was at stake. A quarter of the plant's workers made about $14 an hour and the rest about $26, well above $70,000 a year with overtime, against a $3 base wage for the workers in Mexico taking over.

Carrier's 2025 reduction came to light as a single companywide number. CEO David Gitlin gave it on the February 2026 earnings call, in the same answer where he said a residential downturn had surprised Carrier in the second half of that year, and he said more footprint rationalization lay ahead. More than half of 2025's restructuring costs, and about four-fifths of the first quarter of 2026's, were booked in Carrier's Europe segment, according to its 10-K restructuring note and first-quarter 10-Q. Both filings say the actions behind those costs can include workforce reductions and the consolidation of facilities. Asked on the same call how much of the removed cost Carrier would need to add back as business improved, CFO Patrick Goris said he didn't expect it to be a lot. If you're worried about your own Carrier job, it's worth asking HR whether a restructuring plan reaches your site and what pay and benefits would come with it.

The ten notices our WARN tracker matches to Carrier are filed under six names, from Carrier Corporation and Carrier Transicold to plain Carrier on the 2017 Indianapolis letter and United Technologies Electronic Controls for the Huntington plant. If you're checking for a notice from your own site, it's worth searching under the unit's name as well as Carrier's. All but the Franklin notice predate April 2020, when United Technologies spun off Carrier Global Corporation as its own company, its 2025 annual report says, which is why one 2017 row carries a United Technologies name. Our pages on Kentucky unemployment benefits and Indiana unemployment benefits cover filing a claim in the two states with Carrier's most recent notices, and the Texas and Georgia pages cover the states that hold its older ones.

The Indianapolis terms are a record of what one union negotiated in 2016. At the end of 2025, most of the company's American factory and maintenance staff were covered by union contracts, the same annual report says. If you're represented by a union, it's worth asking your steward whether the contract or a side agreement sets severance, health coverage and retraining money. In 2017 the Indianapolis local pushed for retirement and buyout incentives to shrink the number of layoffs, and if you're close to retirement, it's worth asking whether any early retirement or voluntary separation offer is on the table. That 2016 severance agreement also covered education and technical training costs, and Carrier said about 60 affected employees had signed up for its Employee Scholar Program. If you're offered a severance agreement, our page on negotiating severance covers what's worth asking for, and if your health coverage ends with the job, how COBRA works covers keeping it.

A sourced history of Carrier layoffs

• June 2026, Franklin, Kentucky closing notice

  Carrier's notice to Kentucky for its Franklin operation listed 70 jobs and set the closing for August 30, our WARN tracker shows. Carrier began making aluminum and copper tubing in Franklin in 2022, the Bowling Green Daily News reported.

• 2025, about 3,000 jobs cut across the company

  CEO David Gitlin said on Carrier's February 2026 earnings call that the company had to reduce 3,000 heads in 2025, mostly in the second half, which he called very, very difficult. He said Carrier had rationalized its footprint and expected more.

• January 2018, final Indianapolis fan coil layoffs

  About 215 workers left in the last wave, held past Christmas because of demand, WRTV reported. Carrier said each would get a one-time payment, severance pay and six months of medical coverage, leaving about 1,100 people in Indianapolis.

• July 2017, first Indianapolis fan coil layoffs

  About 340 workers went in the first wave, WRTV later reported. Carrier's May 19 letter to Indiana had listed 632 fan coil jobs ending between late July and the end of the year, per WFYI.

• Late 2016, deal keeps part of the Indianapolis plant

  Donald Trump, then president-elect, and Indiana's governor, his vice president-elect, offered Carrier up to $7 million in incentives and grants to keep about 700 of the jobs, VOA News reported. Carrier promised 1,069 jobs in the city, per WFYI.

• February 2016, Indianapolis move to Mexico announced

  Carrier said it would shut its Indianapolis manufacturing operation and move it to Mexico in three waves through 2019, IndyStar reported. Sister unit United Technologies Electronic Controls was closing its Huntington plant in the same reorganization, for 2,100 Indiana jobs in all.

What to do if you're laid off from Carrier

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. Carrier's biggest hubs: Indiana, Texas, Kentucky, Georgia. Somewhere else? Every state is here.
• Apply for financial and hardship assistance. Unemployment supplements income, but food benefits, health coverage and utility help are often available as well. Here's some of what Carrier's hub states run: Indiana, Texas, Kentucky, Georgia, and every other state is here.
• Mind the health insurance window. Losing coverage opens a 60-day special enrollment period, and an ACA plan usually beats unsubsidized COBRA. Compare your options before the employer coverage lapses, and read how the COBRA clocks run if you are weighing it seriously.
• Get your real runway number. Severance plus savings divided by reality. The calculator takes five minutes.
• Know which clocks are already running. Severance review windows, COBRA election, visa grace periods, and 401(k) rollovers all run on federal deadlines that started at termination. All five deadlines are here.