By Sharon Ko
CENTRAL POINT, Ore. -- After hearing about the lay-offs at the Erickson Company, community members from Central Point are speaking out.
Most of the people NewsWatch12 spoke with on the street or local businesses in Central Point say it's devastating to hear about the lay-offs, especially in a small community like Central Point where they say every job counts.
Erickson is a large company and residents say losing more then one hundred workers is going to hurt. They say it's like a ripple effect. Once you lay-off a worker, that person has a family they no longer can support as well without a job. That means they start saving and not spending what many they have left. That cost-saving tactic directly hits the shops in Central Point's downtown whether it's hair salons, restaurants or retail shops.
"If they don't have the money to come in and do it, that affects us very much so. It could even cause us in fact that we'd have to close down," said the owner of Sugar and Spice Paper, Nancy Twining.
Residents say they're not sure why the company laid-off workers right before the winter season and say it seems to be the worst time to lay-off anyone. At this point, some people in Central Point who NewsWatch12 talked to aren't sure what could help job growth, but they add that the recent lay-offs is a sign to them that times are getting worse.