Laid off from Wabash.

What Wabash layoffs have meant for employees

How many jobs the January 2026 plan touched depends on which document you're holding. Wabash's January 2026 8-K put it at about 270 across Goshen and Little Falls. The Goshen WARN letter covers only the first 14-day stretch of separations from March 6, with later phases to follow, so Indiana's 144 was a first step toward the 8-K's 214 for that plant, and March 6 wasn't everyone's date. If your title isn't on that first list, the list alone can't tell you whether your job was in the plan. California sits outside that count. The 8-K names only the two plants, so the Moreno Valley and Perris layoffs on California's WARN report stand apart from its total even though they share a notice date with the plan.

Wabash's headcount had moved well before any of that. The company counted about 6,000 employees in its 2024 10-K and about 4,700 in its 2025 10-K, and both counts predate the plan's first separations. The 1,300 gap between them is a net change and can't be read as a layoff count, since it can hold people who quit or retired alongside anyone laid off.

Recall is the question the Lafayette record answers most directly, and both answers came down to orders. The 2002 callback came as customers ordered sooner than the company had anticipated, Heavy Duty Trucking reported. In 2009 the orders Wabash reasonably anticipated hadn't materialized, according to the CEO's letter in the Indianapolis Business Journal. Its expected June return was a forecast, and it moved with the order book. Lafayette's mayor said the straight answer would let workers pursue other jobs without hesitating. If you've been told a layoff at Wabash is temporary, you can keep a job search running through the wait, which is what the mayor was describing in 2009. The January 2026 paperwork reads differently, with the Goshen letter expecting the action to be permanent and California typing its rows as permanent, so those documents point away from a recall.

The January plan and the 2009 downturn landed differently. The plan was mostly hourly, about 246 jobs against 24 salaried, across two plants, and most of its expected $15 million to $20 million in charges was non-cash, primarily asset impairment. The $1 million to $2 million expected in cash mixes associate-related and other exit costs, so it isn't a severance figure. The 2009 cuts went well past the plant floor, with the 2009 10-K putting salaried reductions at over 40%, or about 250 people, since early 2007. So the 2026 mix says little about office jobs, and 2009 is the part of the record that does.

Not every step in a downturn here has been a job cut. The 2009 pay and hours reductions and the 2020 furlough landed on people who still had jobs, and the 2009 10-K called its pay, hours and match reductions temporary. If you're still at Wabash and weighing what a slowdown could do, those precedents belong beside the layoff record, because the 2009 steps touched paychecks and retirement savings without ending a job.

The record also runs the other way. Trade press reported recalls and new hires within weeks in early 2002, and the third-quarter 10-Q said Wabash accelerated dry van preparation into 2026 from early 2027 during that quarter, including increasing its hourly workforce, for production levels the filing anticipated in 2027. Our pages on Indiana, Minnesota and California unemployment benefits cover what a claim involves in the three states of the January record.

A sourced history of Wabash layoffs

• January 2026, plan to idle Goshen and Little Falls

  Wabash planned about 24 salaried and 246 hourly job cuts at the two plants, its 8-K said, expected to be largely complete by the end of the second quarter. Goshen's layoffs would come in phases from March 6, the Goshen WARN letter said, and the action was expected to be permanent.

• January 2026, California layoffs at Moreno Valley and Perris

  94 jobs at Moreno Valley and 6 at Perris appear on California's WARN report under Wabash National LP, both noticed January 5, both effective March 6 and both typed as permanent layoffs.

• April 2020, companywide furlough

  Wabash announced a two-week idling and companywide furlough from April 20 to May 3, with customer support still running, Transport Topics reported. CEO Brent Yeagy cited containing cost.

• November 2009, Transcraft's Anna plant closing

  A Transcraft Corporation notice dated November 3 listed 76 jobs at Anna, Illinois, our WARN tracker shows. Wabash's 2009 10-K said consolidating Transcraft's production would finish in early 2010.

• 2009, salaried cuts and temporary pay reductions

  Wabash's 2009 10-K listed about 150 salaried job cuts and, as temporary steps, a 5% hourly wage cut, shorter paid weeks and a suspended 401(k) match, plus a voluntary unpaid layoff program with benefits continued.

• May 2009, 790 Lafayette layoffs lose their return dates

  Wabash had laid off 790 workers after stretching its Christmas shutdown to early February, expecting them back before the end of June, the Indianapolis Business Journal reported. In May it told them it no longer expected to recall them.

• Early 2002, 480 Lafayette layoffs and a reported recall

  Wabash was recalling 480 Lafayette workers laid off six weeks earlier and hiring more, as customers ordered sooner than anticipated, Heavy Duty Trucking reported.

• 2001, Fort Madison and Huntsville plants closed

  Wabash closed its Huntsville, Tennessee, and Fort Madison, Iowa, plants and a Montebello, California, parts facility, its 2001 10-K said, booking $40.5 million in related charges. Our WARN tracker shows 250 jobs at Fort Madison, on Illinois's list.

What to do if you're laid off from Wabash

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. Wabash's biggest hubs: Indiana, California, Minnesota. 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 Wabash's hub states run: Indiana, California, Minnesota, 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.