Laid off from Parkdale Mills.

What Parkdale Mills layoffs have meant for employees

If you work at a Parkdale plant, the question this record raises is whether the plant keeps running, more than whether your name lands on a list. Hillsville's 2023 report covered three of four plants on the property, and another permanent-closure notice followed in 2025. At Salisbury, Parkdale's vice president of human resources said all employees would be affected, the Salisbury Post reported. At Mountain City, Tennessee's memo says workers weren't represented by a collective bargaining agreement and had no bumping rights. When a whole plant goes, what's left to weigh is what the company offers next and what other work sits within driving distance.

Parkdale bought three plants from Avondale Mills in 2006, at Rockford and Alexander City in Alabama and Graniteville in South Carolina, Textile World reported, and all three have since drawn closing notices. When Rockford went, the company froze hiring at Alexander City to make room for its people. Alexander City's own notice came in 2022, and WEIS Radio relayed a report that some employees would get help moving to Leesburg. Our tracker marks a Leesburg filing the next year as a closure. How many people made those moves isn't on record. If you're weighing a move to another Parkdale plant, the job market at that end is part of the math, since a later closing there would leave you looking for work in the new town.

The stated reason has changed more often than the result. Power costs came up as early as Rockford. In 2009 a Parkdale executive told a House panel the company had laid off 450 employees in a year and put about 80 percent of its layoffs down to transshipped yarn, according to California Apparel News. U.S. Cotton named rising raw material costs at Rio Rancho, according to the Rio Rancho Observer. The notices for Hillsville, Walnut Cove and Lexington all pointed to energy. The Charlotte Observer sums up the past decade in its own words as rising energy costs and foreign competition. Officials in 2023 gave their own versions, a soft market at Graniteville, per the Aiken Standard, and expensive production at Hillsville, per WSLS. A stated reason tells you what the company said at the time, and it's no forecast for any other plant.

Communication is the other thing to watch in a Parkdale closing. One worker's account from Hillsville in 2023, given to WSLS, was that the company "could have better prepared us for this." The 2025 Hillsville letter then gave October 24 in one place and 2023 dates in others, Cardinal News found, and Virginia Works contacted the company to confirm the layoffs were new. When that story ran, Parkdale hadn't sent a notice with corrected dates. If you were at Hillsville and a date in that letter looks off, Virginia Works is the agency that took it up with Parkdale.

Help after a closing has been local, from job fairs Parkdale hosted with PEOPLE Inc. at Hillsville to Employment Security Commission hiring help at Landis and a rapid response team in northeast Tennessee. If you're looking for a notice in our tracker, the filer can read Parkdale Mills, Parkdale Inc, plain Parkdale or U.S. Cotton. An empty search doesn't prove no notice went out. Boonville's 2018 notice is missing though the archive holds other North Carolina rows that year, Landis and Salisbury fall in its 2020 through 2022 North Carolina gap, and Mountain City falls in its 2024 Tennessee gap.

A sourced history of Parkdale Mills layoffs

• April 2026, Lexington, North Carolina, closing notice

  Parkdale's report listed 68 layoffs and blamed energy costs for an "unsustainable business model," according to the Charlotte Observer.

• January 2026, Walnut Cove, North Carolina, plant closing

  Parkdale said in January it would shut the Stokes County plant. It closed March 13 with 72 people laid off, according to the Charlotte Observer.

• August 2025, Hillsville, Virginia, closing notice

  A letter said the site would close for good, with 68 layoffs as of Oct. 24, citing "rapidly rising energy costs," Cardinal News reported. Parts of it carried 2023 dates.

• December 2024, Mountain City, Tennessee, closing after Hurricane Helene

  Hurricane Helene "left the facility completely inoperable," Parkdale said, and Tennessee's WARN memo of December 5 recorded a permanent closure effective January 3, 2025, with 120 workers affected.

• September 2024, Sanford, North Carolina, plant closing

  The Lee County plant closed with 74 layoffs, the Charlotte Observer reported, after a notice our tracker dates September 17.

• September 2024, U.S. Cotton's Rio Rancho, New Mexico, shutdown plan

  The company said it would move production to Cleveland, Ohio, and Belmont, North Carolina, citing raw material costs and competition, the Rio Rancho Observer reported.

• August 2023, Leesburg, Alabama, filing

  Parkdale Inc filed the notice on August 15 with an October 14 effective date, and our tracker marks it a closure.

• August 2023, three of four Hillsville, Virginia, plants

  Parkdale told Virginia it would cut 326 jobs in a notice our tracker dates August 10. Cardinal News relayed a report that three of the property's four plants would close, and regional staff told WSLS Parkdale helped some employees transfer.

• February 2023, Graniteville, South Carolina, Plant 40 closing

  A regional official told the Aiken Standard the plant would close at the end of March, with 135 of 150 employees let go and 15 transferred.

• June 2022, Alexander City, Alabama, plant closing

  Alabama's list had the mill closing from July 24, costing 113 jobs, WEIS Radio reported, and The Outlook said some employees would get help relocating to Leesburg.

• April 2020, Salisbury, North Carolina, plant closing

  The plant closed April 20, the Salisbury Post reported, with 110 people out and a notice blaming a "dramatic downturn in business caused by COVID-19."

• February 2020, Landis, North Carolina, closing notice

  The mill said it would lay off more than 90 people in April, citing "changing business conditions," the Salisbury Post reported.

• 2018, Boonville, North Carolina, plant closing

  The Yadkin County plant shut with 63 layoffs, the Charlotte Observer reported.

• April 2017, Williamston, North Carolina, plant closing

  Parkdale laid off 97 people at the Martin County plant, according to the Charlotte Observer, after an April 11 notice in our tracker.

• 2007, Rockford, Alabama, plant closing

  Parkdale said it would close Rockford in January 2008 as its market shrank and power costs ran high, Textile World reported. About 80 employees were being offered jobs elsewhere, including Alexander City.

What to do if you're laid off from Parkdale Mills

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