DAHLONEGA, Ga. (AP) -- Mohawk Industries has informed the Georgia Department of Labor that it is closing its Dahlonega plant, idling 366 workers.
Mohawk, the Calhoun-based carpet and flooring manufacturer, is one of the northeast Georgia community's largest employers. Worldwide, the company has about 36,000 employees.
Mohawk's decision reflects the effects of the nation's housing slowdown. Although it had profits of $706.8 million last year, a 55 percent increase from 2006, it has closed several plants.
In September, Mohawk announced that it was shuttering Mohawk Home plants in Dalton and Calhoun as it gets out of the woven throw, decorative pillow and woven bedspread businesses.
It announced the closure of a 158-person plant in the Rome metro area in February, and that of a Dalton plant with 66 employees.
''The housing crisis has been centered in north Georgia as it relates to jobs,'' Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond said.
''This has never happened before where you've had such large shifts in unemployment in the northern half of the state,'' Thurmond said. ''We're redirecting resources to north Georgia to address a situation that, quite frankly, caught us by surprise. We're going to have to re-calibrate decades of thinking and strategy in order to bring in new industry.''
Local officials in Dahlonega are already looking for new industry.
''We're attacking this as a community,'' said Bruce Abraham, executive director of the Lumpkin County Development Authority. ''We are trying to look at it from a positive standpoint to market this community.''
He estimated the plant, which paid about $90,000 in annual personal and property taxes, had a payroll of about $9 million.
Because of the plant's need for water, officials are touting its onsite pre-treatment facility.
''Not all communities have the water treatment ability right now and so they're not able to talk to a lot of industry. We're optimistic,'' Abraham said.
