180 Jobs Lost In Vermillion Call Center Closure

Jobs are on the chopping block in Vermillion. Stream Global Services has announced it is closing its doors this fall.

Stream Global is a business outsourcing call center. The Vermillion office has been open for more than 10 years.

Vermillion’s office will go dark by October 31. The call center closure means a loss of 180 jobs in a facility that has operated around the clock since 2001.

“They had been actively hiring new employees and there was no indication there were any troubles, so it was a little bit of a surprise,” Vermillion Area Economic Development Director Steve Howe said.

Howe's job is to spur Vermillion's economic growth. To a large extent that's something that has happened during the past two years. Vermillion is on track to add more than 200 jobs by year's end. The announcement of Stream Global Services’ closure wipes out those job gains.

“That is one of the things you want to do as an economic development entity, is keep growing the community. Because you don't know what is around the corner. Our goal is to make sure we keep the Vermillion economy strong,” Howe said.

Howe says another goal is helping workers displaced during the Stream closure, trying to find new places for them to work come fall. He says that could even be in the same building and other companies have not come to Vermillion because of a lack of commercial space.

“We will have some available workforce and available space, which hopefully we can bring in a new company that can help absorb some of these employees,” Howe said.

Howe says Vermillion's unemployment rate is sitting at just about 3.5 percent.

According to a company representative, Stream employees who stay on through the closure will receive severance packages. The company has another facility in just 45 miles away in Sergeant Bluff, Iowa and expects some employees to move there.