258 jobs cut regionally, 161 at single Tampa Bay company

Paragon Water Systems announced Monday that it is laying off 161 people at two facilities in the Tampa area, this on a day when two other companies in the region announced nearly 100 more job cuts.

The three companies notified the state in letters that posted publicly Monday afternoon. The letters were sent to meet WARN Notice requirements. Federal law requires companies to provide states with Worker Adjustment Retraining and Notification notices when making job cuts.

The biggest cuts are happening at Paragon, a water filtration company founded in Clearwater in 1988 and sold to Culligan Water in 2018. In two identical letters, the company says it is making 127 cuts at its 13805 Monores Business Park facility in Tampa and 34 at it 4029 Tampa Road facility in Oldsmar.