A steel mill in Illinois has alerted the state that it will cease operations which will result in the job loss of 253 workers. I knew this was bad news when I saw the Illinois Work Net site updated with a WARN notice from a steel company in Illinois with the number 253 workers attached to it. It said that Alton Steel, Inc. located at 5 Cut Street in Alton, Illinois was closing. The scheduled layoffs of 253 workers starts almost immediately with the cuts being effective January 31, 2026. The Illinois Work Net Center site says that the state has experienced layoffs for 1,426 workers in just the past 30 days.