Newport Town Hosts Information Evening to Help Residents Affected by Layoffs

When Sturm, Ruger & Co. cut 63 jobs from its Newport firearms factory in early February, Town Manager Kyle Harris learned about it the way many residents did: through rumor. "Nobody's really talking," he said at the time. Nearly two months later, his office organized an Information Evening to do what Ruger had not: connect laid-off workers with unemployment benefits, retraining funding, and emergency financial support.

The evening, announced through Newport's municipal news page on April 2, put Sullivan County's social safety net to a direct test. The 63 Ruger workers represent about 10 percent of the company's Newport workforce of 655 people and roughly one in every hundred town residents. In a county seat of 6,500, that is the kind of economic jolt that travels fast through household budgets, local businesses, and school lunch counts.

The session was designed to consolidate access across agencies that displaced workers might not know how to reach on their own. Attendees could get help filing for unemployment insurance through New Hampshire Employment Security, connect with NH Works career centers for job-search assistance and occupational retraining, and learn about short-term emergency aid for rent, utilities, and food. The state's Rapid Response program deploys staff when 25 or more workers are displaced and offers career counseling at no cost to affected employees. Ruger's 63 cuts clear that threshold.

The company did not file a WARN Act notice with the state. New Hampshire law requires employer notification for layoffs of 25 or more workers, a trigger that should have set off a coordinated state response. Instead, the NH Department of Labor's general counsel, John Garrigan, confirmed the 63-person figure only after reporters made inquiries. That left Newport's municipal government to organize the outreach Ruger and the state process never provided.

Gaps remained in what the town disclosed. The announcement did not name which agencies sent representatives, what documents workers should have brought, or whether follow-up one-on-one appointments were available. Workers with outstanding questions can contact Harris's office at (603) 863-1877, 15 Sunapee Street, or check Newport's municipal website for any posted updates.

The layoffs came as Ruger reported a pretax loss of $2.1 million in the third quarter of 2025. Spokesman Rob Werkmeister attributed the cuts to "cost misalignments" and the need to "balance production across our facilities," and said the company had no plans for additional reductions in Newport. With 592 Ruger employees still on the payroll in a town where the manufacturer has long been the dominant source of factory work, that assurance carries considerable weight.