NAPPANEE -- Bill Mitschelen didn't expect the paycheck he picked up Thursday to be his last from recreational vehicle maker Newmar Corp.
His supervisor called him a day later to say that it was.
Mitschelen, a production worker at the company for the past 2-1/2 years, learned he is among an unspecified number of employees who will lose their jobs at Newmar as the deepening downturn in the economy prompts further cutbacks in Elkhart County's manufacturing base.
"We knew it was slow, but we didn't know it was going to be this slow to force a layoff," said Mitschelen, a 27-year-old Nappanee resident with a wife and toddler son.
Keith Weirick, Newmar's director of human resources, confirmed Monday that the staff reductions were taking place but declined to say how many workers would be idled.
In a letter Mitschelen received with his paycheck, the company said it was reducing the work force by nearly 40 percent.
The company, which makes high-end Class A motorhomes, is in the midst of a three-week summer shutdown that began last week. The furlough -- there and at some other RV plants around the county -- is longer than the typical July holiday shutdown that in previous years has lasted only one or two weeks.
The break is longer still for Mitschelen, who won't be returning to work in the Newmar door department.
"I'll look for something to fill the hole," he said, adding that he will seek unemployment benefits and rely on his wife's retail job to make ends meet for now. "That's what I'm doing now -- just job hunting."
Weirick said sidelined Newmar employees could be called back to work at some point.
The company earlier this year let go about 100 workers from its Nappanee facility, according to media reports.
And slowdowns and upheavals at other local RV companies have shaken the industry both here and nationwide.
RV shipments this year and next are expected to fall more than 10 percent compared with 2007, said Kevin Broom, a spokesman for Recreation Vehicle Industry Association. He blamed the financing crunch.
"The biggest reason is the (lack of) availability of credit," Broom said.
In the long run, Broom said, research indicates that the industry is expected to rebound on the strength of aging baby boomers and the growing number of younger families buying RVs.
For his part, the job-seeking Mitschelen said he is encouraged by reports from a quarterly Newmar meeting that suggested business likely will bounce back later this year.
When he began working there, 10 unfinished RVs rolled across his production line five days a week. The work then trailed off to between five and eight units three or four days a week.
Mitschelen said he has tried not to dwell on how tough the economy has become.
"People talk about it here and there around town, but I think they are mainly trying to avoid it and hope things bounce back," he said. "That's all you can hope for, I guess."