Laid off from Hanesbrands.

What Hanesbrands layoffs have meant for employees

A year before Gildan bought it, Hanesbrands' workforce was overwhelmingly abroad. About 93% of the roughly 41,000 people on its payroll when 2024 ended worked outside the U.S., and 79% worked in large supply chain plants located mainly in Central America, the Caribbean Basin and Asia, according to its fiscal 2024 annual report. By our arithmetic that leaves about 3,000 people in the U.S. The work had been moving to lower-cost countries long before Gildan. In 2008 Hanesbrands said most of the sewing from the Central American plants it was closing would go to new plants in Asia, where it had opened or bought four sewing plants in two years, the company's September 2008 release said. Each of the company's U.S. notices since 2021 in our WARN tracker covered between 75 and 159 jobs at a single site, so the site address on a notice is what ties it to a particular group of jobs.

Distribution has figured in the Maidenform purchase, the Champion sale and the Gildan takeover alike. In 2013 Hanes planned to fold Maidenform's supply chain and distribution into its own organization, its October 2013 release said, and the High Point center whose closing followed the Champion sale had mainly served that brand, SGB Media reported. The June 2024 decision to exit Champion also took Hanesbrands out of its U.S. outlet store business, which it left that July. Gildan's plans came with the same focus. Hanesbrands' August 2025 associate FAQ said Gildan would review network, distribution and logistics opportunities across the combined company, and Gildan's February 2026 results release said it was optimizing distribution capacity. If you work in a Hanes distribution center, the brands your building ships are worth knowing for that reason.

For people Gildan kept after the closing, the same FAQ said Gildan had committed to pay, bonus targets and certain benefits no lower than before for at least six months, subject to local laws and collective agreements, and it answered yes when asked whether Gildan would honor years of service. At the end of 2024 no Hanesbrands employee in the U.S. worked under a collective bargaining agreement, the annual report says, while a significant share of the workers abroad were represented by unions or covered by trade-sponsored or government agreements. The FAQ's severance commitment covered the first year after the closing, which by our arithmetic runs to December 1, 2026, a year after the closing date Gildan gave. If severance terms covered your role before the closing and your job ended inside that year, a copy of those terms is worth keeping, since they're the measure the FAQ set. If you're weighing a package now, there's more on negotiating severance.

Gildan's severance and other charges for the Hanes integration came to $27.5 million in its fourth quarter of 2025, $27.1 million in the first quarter of 2026 and $11.9 million in the second, according to its second-quarter 2026 report. The first half of 2026 also carried costs for ending leases and writing down a U.S. distribution center, and the report doesn't say whether that center was a Hanes site.

North Carolina unemployment benefits and Virginia unemployment benefits cover the claim rules in the two states where Hanesbrands' own notices were filed. Hanesbrands' deal-day FAQ said the combined company would operate under the Gildan name, so a later notice for a Hanes site could carry Gildan's name, and it's worth looking under both names in our tracker. An empty search there doesn't show that no notice was filed, because the state archives behind the tracker have gaps by state and year. If health coverage ended with the job, the continuation rules are set out in how COBRA works.

A sourced history of Hanesbrands layoffs

• February 2026, Gildan announces closing of two Hanes textile plants

  Gildan said it was proceeding with closing Hanesbrands' two textile manufacturing plants in early 2026, with their production to be spread across its combined network, according to its February 2026 results release.

• November 2024, High Point distribution center closing

  Hanesbrands told North Carolina it would close its High Point distribution center, which had mainly served the Champion brand sold that September, and lay off 75 workers, SGB Media reported, with jobs expected to end around December 31 and January 31.

• February 2024, Winston-Salem distribution center layoffs

  A February 5 notice set layoffs of nearly 160 workers, including shipping clerks and freight and logistics coordinators, from April 5 at the Annapolis Drive center Hanesbrands planned to repurpose, Supply Chain Dive reported.

• March 2021, Stuart, Virginia closing notice

  Hanesbrand Inc. notified Virginia on March 16 of a closure at 138 Elamsville Road in Stuart affecting 146 employees, with July 31 as the impact date, according to Virginia's WARN notice record.

• October 2013, Maidenform headquarters and distribution center closings planned

  After buying Maidenform, Hanes planned to keep more than half of Maidenform's workers and close its New Jersey headquarters and Fayetteville, North Carolina distribution center by the end of 2014, its October 2013 release said. Maidenform's July 2014 Fayetteville notice carries 176 jobs in our WARN tracker.

• September 2008, nine plant closings in five countries

  Hanesbrands announced nine closings affecting about 8,100 employees, including knit-fabric and yarn plants in Forest City, Gastonia and Eden, North Carolina, according to its September 2008 release.

• September 2006, Monclova, Lumberton and Marion plant closings

  Hanesbrands said it would close plants in Monclova, Mexico, Lumberton, North Carolina and Marion, South Carolina, cutting about 2,185 jobs and moving the work to lower-cost plants, with charges that included severance, its September 2006 release said.

• 1999, Playtex Apparel layoffs in Newnan, Georgia

  Playtex Apparel's Newnan row in our WARN tracker lists 224 jobs with a July 1999 layoff date. A Labor Department ruling later certified the workers as eligible to apply for trade adjustment assistance, finding the parent company had moved its intimate apparel production abroad.

What to do if you're laid off from Hanesbrands

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. Hanesbrands's biggest hubs: North Carolina, Virginia, 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 Hanesbrands's hub states run: North Carolina, Virginia, 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.