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When the economy was humming along 18 months ago, Dean Sundquist, chairman and CEO of Mate Precision Tooling in Anoka, couldn't find enough workers.
"Now, we have too many," he said.
Mate, a $75 million, 500-employee precision machine too] company, has stopped hiring new employees and is asking some workers to voluntarily cut their hours.
"Hopefully we won't have to lay anybody off," Sundquist said.
Mate's experience isn't unique for manufacturing companies. Manufacturers of all types across the country have initiated hiring freezes, delayed expansion plans and laid off workers during the past 9 months.
Manufacturers cut 94,000 jobs in February, in...