Technical information: (202) 691-6392 USDL 07-0757 http://www.bls.gov/mls/ For release: 10:00 A.M. EDT Media contact: 691-5902 Wednesday, May 23, 2007 MASS LAYOFFS IN APRIL 2007 In April, employers took 1,243 mass layoff actions, seasonally ad- justed, as measured by new filings for unemployment insurance benefits during the month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Each action involved at least 50 persons from a single establishment; the number of workers involved totaled 126,047, on a seasonally adjusted basis. The number of mass layoff events de- creased by 33 from the prior month, and the number of associated initial claims fell by 4,640. During April, 383 mass layoff events were reported in the manufacturing sector, seasonally adjusted, resulting in 43,753 ini- tial claims. Compared with March, mass layoff activity in manufacturing decreased by 37 events and by 10,688 initial claims. (See table 1.) The national unemployment rate was 4.5 percent in April, essentially un- changed from 4.4 percent the prior month and down from 4.7 percent a year earlier. Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 88,000 over the month and by 1.9 million over the year. Industry Distribution (Not Seasonally Adjusted) The 10 industries reporting the highest numbers of mass layoff initial claims, not seasonally adjusted, accounted for 42 percent of the total initial claims in April. The industry with the highest number of initial claims was school and employee bus transportation with 17,135, followed by motion picture and video production with 7,647, and temporary help services with 7,330. Together, these three industries accounted for 25 percent of all initial claims due to mass layoffs during the month. (See table A.) The manufacturing sector accounted for 25 percent of all mass layoff events and 28 percent of all related initial claims filed in April; a year earlier, manufacturing made up 26 percent of events and 33 percent of initial claims. In April 2007, the number of manufacturing claimants was highest in transportation equipment manufacturing (11,466, largely heavy duty truck manufacturing), followed by food manufacturing (5,925), and machinery manufacturing (2,392). (See table 3.) Transportation and warehousing accounted for 13 percent of mass layoff events and 15 percent of initial claims in April, primarily from school and employee bus transportation. Administrative and waste services comprised 12 percent of events and 9 percent of initial claims filed during the month, with the majority of layoffs in temporary help services. Three percent of all mass layoff events and 7 percent of related initial claims filed were from information, primarily from motion picture and video production. Ac- commodation and food services made up 6 percent of events and initial claims, largely from the food service contractors industry. - 2 - Table A. Industries with the largest number of mass layoff initial claims in April 2007 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | April peak Industry |Initial |------------------------ | claims | | | | Year | Initial claims ------------------------------------------|--------------------------------- School and employee bus transportation ...| 17,135 | 2006 | 17,621 Motion picture and video production ......| 7,647 | 1997 | 15,908 Temporary help services ..................| 7,330 | 2001 | 17,507 Food service contractors .................| 4,110 | 2004 | 5,496 Heavy duty truck manufacturing ...........| 3,451 | 2007 | 3,451 Automobile manufacturing .................| 3,340 | 1996 | 14,744 Tax preparation services .................| 3,309 | 2006 | 3,791 Farm labor contractors and crew leaders ..| 3,250 | 1998 | 4,054 Professional employer organizations ......| 2,043 | 2001 | 3,280 Hotels and motels, except casino hotels ..| 1,911 | 2004 | 2,647 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- On a not seasonally adjusted basis, the number of mass layoff events in April, at 1,224, was up by 84 from a year earlier, and the number of associated initial claims increased by 5,685 to 127,274. (See table 2.) The largest over-the-year increases in initial claims were reported in motion picture and sound recording industries (+4,620), credit intermedi- ation and related activities (+2,543), and hospitals (+1,360). The larg- est over-the-year decreases in mass layoff initial claims were reported in transportation equipment manufacturing (-2,693) and food manufacturing (-2,267). Geographic Distribution (Not Seasonally Adjusted) Among the 4 census regions, the highest number of initial claims in April due to mass layoffs was in the West with 42,381. Motion picture and sound recording, administrative and support services, and agriculture and forestry support activities together accounted for 42 percent of all mass layoff initial claims in that region during the month. The Northeast had the second largest number of initial claims among the regions with 35,637, followed by the South with 26,211, and the Midwest with 23,045. (See table 5.) The number of initial claimants in mass layoffs increased over the year in three of the four regions--the West (+8,184), the South (+7,928), and the Northeast (+1,022). The Midwest region experienced the only decrease (-11,449), primarily due to fewer initial claimants in transportation equipment manufacturing. Six of the 9 geographic divisions had over-the- year increases in the numbers of initial claims associated with mass lay- offs, with the largest increases in the Pacific (+5,929), the South Atlantic (+3,035), and the East South Central (+2,705). The division with the largest over-the-year decrease in mass layoff initial claims was the East North Central (-10,144). Among the states, California recorded the highest number of initial claims filed due to mass layoff events in April (28,883), followed by New York (15,254), Pennsylvania (10,997), Ohio (6,024), and New Jersey (4,749). These five states accounted for 53 percent of all mass layoff events and 52 percent of all initial claims for unemployment insurance. (See table 6.) California had the largest over-the-year increase in the number of initial claims (+4,332). States having the next largest increases in initial claims were Pennsylvania (+2,295), South Carolina (+1,977), Arizona (+1,947), and New York (+1,868). The largest over-the-year decreases in claims occurred in Ohio (-6,158) and Michigan (-3,402). Note The monthly data series in this release cover mass layoffs of 50 or more workers beginning in a given month, regardless of the duration of the layoffs. For private nonfarm establishments, information on the length of the layoff is obtained later and issued in a quarterly release that reports on mass layoffs lasting more than 30 days (referred to as "extended mass layoffs"). The quarterly release provides more information on the industry classification and location of the establishment and on the demographics of the laid-off workers. Because monthly figures include short-term layoffs of 30 days or less, the sum of the figures for the 3 months in a quarter will be higher than the quarterly figure for mass layoffs of more than 30 days. (See table 4.) See the Technical Note for more detailed definitions. ______________________________ The report on Mass Layoffs in May 2007 is scheduled to be released on Friday, June 22. - 3 - Technical Note The Mass Layoff Statistics (MLS) program is a federal-state program that uses a standardized, automated approach to identifying, describing, and tracking the effects of major job cutbacks, using data from each state's unemployment insurance database. Each month, states report on establishments which have at least 50 initial claims filed against them during a consecutive 5-week period. These establishments then are con- tacted by the state agency to determine whether these separations lasted 31 days or longer, and, if so, other information concerning the layoff is collected. States report on layoffs lasting more than 1 month on a quart- erly basis. A given month contains an aggregation of the weekly unemployment insurance claims filings for the Sunday through Saturday weeks in that month. All weeks are included for the particular month, except if the first day of the month falls on Saturday. In this case, the week is included in the prior month's tabulations. This means that some months will contain 4 weeks and others, 5 weeks, the number of weeks in a given month may be different from year to year, and the number of weeks in a year may vary. Therefore, analysis of over-the-month and over-the-year change in not seasonally adjusted series should take this calendar effect into consideration. The MLS program resumed operations in April 1995 after it had been terminated in November 1992 due to lack of funding. Prior to April 1995, monthly layoff statistics were not available. Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone: 202-691-5200; TDD message referral phone number: 1-800-877-8339. Definitions Initial claimant. A person who files any notice of unemployment to initiate a request either for a determination of entitlement to and eligibility for compensation, or for a subsequent period of unemployment within a benefit year or period of eligibility. Mass layoff event. Fifty or more initial claims for unemployment insurance benefits filed against an establishment during a 5-week period, regardless of duration. Seasonal adjustment Effective with the release of data for January 2005, BLS began publish- ing six seasonally adjusted monthly MLS series. The six series are the numbers of mass layoff events and mass layoff initial claims for the total, private nonfarm, and manufacturing sectors. Seasonal adjustment is the process of estimating and removing the effect on time series data of regularly recurring seasonal events such as changes in the weather, holidays, and the beginning and ending of the school year. The use of seasonal adjustment makes it easier to observe fundamental changes in time series, particularly those associated with general economic expan- sions and contractions. The MLS data are seasonally adjusted using the X-12-ARIMA seasonal adjust- ment method on a concurrent basis. Concurrent seasonal adjustment uses all available monthly estimates, including those for the current month, in devel- oping seasonal adjustment factors. Revisions to the most recent 5 years of seasonally adjusted data will be made once a year with the issuance of December data. Before the data are seasonally adjusted, prior adjustments are made to the original data to adjust them for differences in the number of weeks used to calculate the monthly data. Because weekly unemployment insurance claims are aggregated to form monthly data, a particular month's value could be calculated with 5 weeks of data in one year and 4 weeks in another. The effects of these differences could seriously distort the seasonal factors if they were ignored in the seasonal adjustment process. These effects are modeled in the X-12-ARIMA program and are permanently removed from the final seasonally adjusted series. Table 1. Mass layoff events and initial claimants for unemployment insurance, May 2003 to April 2007, seasonally adjusted Total Private nonfarm Manufacturing Date Initial Initial Initial Events claimants Events claimants Events claimants 2003 May ........................ 1,731 184,479 1,550 170,984 635 87,049 June ....................... 1,733 164,442 1,523 147,609 638 68,976 July ....................... 1,649 164,146 1,443 148,650 567 72,023 August ..................... 1,498 169,799 1,362 156,687 546 74,509 September .................. 1,562 147,054 1,370 132,262 479 57,332 October .................... 1,536 158,137 1,328 140,298 420 52,105 November ................... 1,366 138,079 1,223 126,597 377 49,716 December ................... 1,412 139,423 1,243 127,356 445 50,923 2004 January .................... 1,428 146,692 1,232 128,191 394 45,544 February ................... 1,320 134,626 1,170 122,329 367 40,849 March ...................... 1,372 139,716 1,237 130,737 401 59,987 April ...................... 1,374 140,190 1,202 124,962 349 38,197 May ........................ 1,209 113,091 1,047 99,615 330 38,965 June ....................... 1,403 141,048 1,231 128,137 366 47,015 July ....................... 1,330 137,484 1,180 126,106 372 51,424 August ..................... 1,394 127,671 1,224 113,376 345 36,963 September .................. 1,277 125,351 1,154 115,343 338 46,955 October .................... 1,288 132,250 1,172 122,831 362 47,571 November ................... 1,314 130,558 1,171 118,904 378 46,276 December ................... 1,170 114,641 1,013 103,434 301 33,022 2005 January .................... 1,489 160,986 1,353 150,640 383 56,133 February ................... 1,172 123,377 1,045 112,752 358 45,794 March ...................... 1,219 132,035 1,079 122,013 377 55,061 April ...................... 1,263 137,381 1,132 126,747 398 60,826 May ........................ 1,226 133,221 1,085 120,899 382 54,886 June ....................... 1,194 126,834 1,074 117,712 359 57,018 July ....................... 1,248 131,500 1,101 118,800 353 47,136 August ..................... 1,109 123,125 986 111,879 338 46,915 September .................. 2,217 292,177 1,998 246,227 419 56,289 October .................... 1,098 108,665 977 99,402 321 44,666 November ................... 1,167 115,803 1,036 104,576 330 43,307 December ................... 1,253 135,721 1,125 124,632 372 48,592 2006 January .................... 1,112 109,429 984 99,277 282 29,911 February ................... 1,065 112,742 973 105,055 329 46,548 March ...................... 1,105 120,954 1,003 112,730 335 50,149 April ...................... 1,175 121,376 1,041 111,369 365 48,038 May ........................ 1,098 113,195 982 103,839 297 42,993 June ....................... 1,130 123,558 1,007 113,037 331 40,500 July ....................... 1,160 118,843 1,038 109,509 372 49,069 August ..................... 1,218 131,105 1,083 120,923 367 58,983 September .................. 1,158 120,795 1,043 111,876 392 46,802 October .................... 1,186 119,914 1,069 111,036 401 55,795 November ................... 1,220 136,340 1,111 127,286 411 60,599 December ................... 1,201 133,818 1,099 124,526 390 53,828 2007 January .................... 1,237 126,368 1,095 115,615 389 51,141 February ................... 1,280 143,977 1,166 135,252 419 64,072 March ...................... 1,276 130,687 1,165 122,150 420 54,441 April ...................... 1,243 126,047 1,116 115,968 383 43,753 Table 2. Mass layoff events and initial claimants for unemployment insurance, May 2003 to April 2007, not seasonally adjusted Total Private nonfarm Manufacturing Date Initial Initial Initial Events claimants Events claimants Events claimants 2003 May ........................ 1,703 174,204 1,538 160,729 499 61,278 June ....................... 1,691 157,552 1,336 127,743 389 40,845 July ....................... 2,087 226,435 1,815 206,901 946 136,410 August ..................... 1,258 133,839 1,163 124,131 405 52,620 September .................. 868 82,647 756 73,914 271 31,428 October .................... 1,523 158,240 1,265 137,706 438 53,741 November ................... 1,438 138,543 1,234 123,524 408 48,419 December ................... 1,929 192,633 1,793 182,750 648 77,915 2004 January .................... 2,428 239,454 2,226 220,687 848 89,551 February ................... 941 84,201 832 76,577 240 23,043 March ...................... 920 92,554 847 87,782 258 34,686 April ...................... 1,458 157,314 1,316 142,657 343 36,172 May ........................ 988 87,501 878 78,786 219 22,141 June ....................... 1,379 134,588 1,077 110,804 222 27,307 July ....................... 2,094 253,929 1,860 234,877 885 145,895 August ..................... 809 69,033 745 63,876 194 17,698 September .................. 708 68,972 637 63,102 189 25,808 October .................... 1,242 127,918 1,101 117,375 372 48,265 November ................... 1,399 130,423 1,201 115,549 412 44,243 December ................... 1,614 161,271 1,487 152,092 436 50,726 2005 January .................... 2,564 263,952 2,421 253,409 823 108,985 February ................... 810 74,644 722 68,372 230 24,931 March ...................... 806 88,937 733 83,793 246 33,030 April ...................... 1,373 158,582 1,263 148,133 395 59,129 May ........................ 986 101,358 891 93,332 249 30,424 June ....................... 1,157 120,463 941 103,307 216 32,783 July ....................... 1,981 244,216 1,745 222,377 856 136,210 August ..................... 645 67,582 598 63,484 188 22,531 September .................. 1,662 213,281 1,505 179,042 318 47,497 October .................... 905 91,941 757 80,694 249 37,276 November ................... 1,254 116,127 1,079 102,182 363 41,442 December ................... 2,323 254,258 2,168 242,753 706 96,382 2006 January .................... 1,245 117,946 1,123 108,701 331 35,097 February ................... 719 66,555 658 62,208 210 24,892 March ...................... 921 111,838 856 106,177 285 44,688 April ...................... 1,140 121,589 1,038 112,964 296 39,538 May ........................ 872 84,809 794 78,663 192 23,570 June ....................... 1,489 164,761 1,224 140,687 319 41,095 July ....................... 1,511 166,857 1,335 154,342 648 96,152 August ..................... 708 72,844 656 69,054 203 28,494 September .................. 865 87,699 785 81,274 296 39,076 October .................... 964 98,804 820 88,133 311 46,737 November ................... 1,315 136,186 1,172 125,009 455 58,473 December ................... 2,249 254,503 2,126 244,783 735 105,462 2007 January .................... 1,407 134,984 1,263 124,475 456 53,615 February ................... 935 86,696 861 82,097 273 36,170 March ...................... 1,082 123,974 1,015 118,431 367 49,886 April ...................... 1,224 127,274 1,124 118,181 305 35,041 Table 3. Industry distribution: Mass layoff events and initial claimants for unemployment insurance Initial claimants for Mass layoff events unemployment insurance Industry April February March April April February March April 2006 2007 2007 2007 2006 2007 2007 2007 Seasonally adjusted Total ..................................... 1,175 1,280 1,276 1,243 121,376 143,977 130,687 126,047 Total, private nonfarm ........................ 1,041 1,166 1,165 1,116 111,369 135,252 122,150 115,968 Manufacturing ............................... 365 419 420 383 48,038 64,072 54,441 43,753 Not seasonally adjusted Total (1) ................................. 1,140 935 1,082 1,224 121,589 86,696 123,974 127,274 Total, private .................................. 1,098 913 1,046 1,184 118,236 85,170 120,544 124,615 Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting .. 60 52 31 60 5,272 3,073 2,113 6,434 Total, private nonfarm ........................ 1,038 861 1,015 1,124 112,964 82,097 118,431 118,181 Mining ...................................... 5 (2) (2) (2) 385 (2) (2) (2) Utilities ................................... (2) (2) (2) - (2) (2) (2) - Construction ................................ 98 203 107 84 6,324 13,191 7,815 6,259 Manufacturing ............................... 296 273 367 305 39,538 36,170 49,886 35,041 Food .................................... 80 40 67 60 8,192 4,188 6,087 5,925 Beverage and tobacco products ........... (2) 4 7 3 (2) 280 778 251 Textile mills ........................... 14 6 16 15 2,935 998 1,882 1,234 Textile product mills ................... 9 4 4 8 773 383 350 1,030 Apparel ................................. 12 5 15 12 1,724 286 1,355 944 Leather and allied products ............. (2) (2) - (2) (2) (2) - (2) Wood products ........................... 24 47 30 21 2,342 4,497 2,674 1,907 Paper ................................... 5 7 10 3 333 397 779 214 Printing and related support activities . 9 4 8 5 804 358 637 578 Petroleum and coal products ............. - (2) - (2) - (2) - (2) Chemicals ............................... 4 4 5 7 272 348 310 682 Plastics and rubber products ............ 12 9 18 10 912 469 1,682 900 Nonmetallic mineral products ............ 14 24 16 11 914 1,624 1,483 1,021 Primary metals .......................... 11 13 17 12 731 1,411 1,976 1,415 Fabricated metal products ............... 16 14 14 22 1,083 1,315 1,567 1,639 Machinery ............................... 10 17 11 16 1,387 2,946 2,013 2,392 Computer and electronic products ........ 13 9 26 13 946 667 2,562 993 Electrical equipment and appliances ..... 7 4 15 5 762 281 2,502 996 Transportation equipment ................ 39 43 68 62 14,093 14,510 19,397 11,466 Furniture and related products .......... 8 15 16 7 709 994 1,571 518 Miscellaneous manufacturing ............. 5 (2) 4 10 394 (2) 281 758 Wholesale trade ............................. 19 5 17 16 1,933 278 1,828 1,668 Retail trade ................................ 86 71 93 98 7,780 5,869 11,407 7,626 Transportation and warehousing .............. 152 40 55 164 19,558 4,254 5,896 19,456 Information ................................. 30 24 30 42 4,570 2,966 4,843 8,480 Finance and insurance ....................... 26 21 39 49 1,670 1,511 2,883 4,061 Real estate and rental and leasing .......... (2) 4 7 5 (2) 275 400 251 Professional and technical services ......... 41 25 29 50 5,776 2,403 4,391 7,033 Management of companies and enterprises ..... (2) (2) 5 (2) (2) (2) 324 (2) Administrative and waste services ........... 134 114 140 149 10,725 9,156 15,153 11,746 Educational services ........................ 5 4 4 7 572 322 192 1,341 Health care and social assistance ........... 21 18 16 28 1,676 1,099 1,160 3,344 Arts, entertainment, and recreation ......... 25 5 10 26 1,895 289 680 1,905 Accommodation and food services ............. 74 42 86 78 7,937 3,555 10,895 7,653 Other services, except public administration 17 5 6 17 2,000 310 364 1,823 Unclassified ................................ 4 1 - - 240 71 - - Government ...................................... 42 22 36 40 3,353 1,526 3,430 2,659 Federal ..................................... 9 5 6 9 796 339 501 698 State ....................................... 10 6 11 9 909 482 820 524 Local ....................................... 23 11 19 22 1,648 705 2,109 1,437 1 Data were reported by all states and the District of Columbia. 2 Data do not meet BLS or state agency disclosure standards. NOTE: Dash represents zero. Table 4. Mass layoff events and initial claimants for unemployment insurance, April 2005 to April 2007,not seasonally adjusted Private nonfarm Total mass layoffs Extended mass layoffs Date Mass layoffs lasting more than 30 days Realization rates (1) Initial Initial Initial Initial Events claimants Events claimants Events claimants Events claimants 2005 April ...................... 1,373 158,582 1,263 148,133 May ........................ 986 101,358 891 93,332 June ....................... 1,157 120,463 941 103,307 Second Quarter ............. 3,516 380,403 3,095 344,772 1,203 212,673 38.9 61.7 July ....................... 1,981 244,216 1,745 222,377 August ..................... 645 67,582 598 63,484 September .................. 1,662 213,281 1,505 179,042 Third Quarter .............. 4,288 525,079 3,848 464,903 1,136 190,186 29.5 40.9 October .................... 905 91,941 757 80,694 November ................... 1,254 116,127 1,079 102,182 December ................... 2,323 254,258 2,168 242,753 Fourth Quarter ............. 4,482 462,326 4,004 425,629 1,400 246,188 35.0 57.8 2006 January .................... 1,245 117,946 1,123 108,701 February ................... 719 66,555 658 62,208 March ...................... 921 111,838 856 106,177 First Quarter .............. 2,885 296,339 2,637 277,086 963 (r)193,510 36.5 (r)69.8 April ...................... 1,140 121,589 1,038 112,964 May ........................ 872 84,809 794 78,663 June ....................... 1,489 164,761 1,224 140,687 Second Quarter ............. 3,501 371,159 3,056 332,314 1,353 (r)264,807 44.3 (r)79.7 July ....................... 1,511 166,857 1,335 154,342 August ..................... 708 72,844 656 69,054 September .................. 865 87,699 785 81,274 Third Quarter .............. 3,084 327,400 2,776 304,670 929 (r)161,716 33.5 (r)53.1 October .................... 964 98,804 820 88,133 November ................... 1,315 136,186 1,172 125,009 December ................... 2,249 254,503 2,126 244,783 Fourth Quarter ............. 4,528 489,493 4,118 457,925 (r)1,640 (r)330,124 (r)39.8 (r)72.1 2007 January .................... 1,407 134,984 1,263 124,475 February ................... 935 86,696 861 82,097 March ...................... 1,082 123,974 1,015 118,431 First Quarter .............. 3,424 345,654 3,139 325,003 (2)(p)965 (2)(p)122,595 (p)30.7 (p)37.7 April ...................... 1,224 127,274 1,124 118,181 1 The event realization rate is the percentage of all private nonfarm mass layoff events lasting more than 30 days. The initial claimant realization rate is the percentage of all private nonfarm mass layoff initial claimants associated with layoffs lasting more than 30 days. 2 These quarterly numbers are provisional and will be revised as more data on these layoffs become available. Experience suggests that the number of extended mass layoff events is generally revised upwards by less than 10 percent and the number of initial claimants associated with such events increases by 25-40 percent. r = revised. p = preliminary. Table 5. Mass layoff events and initial claimants for unemployment insurance by census region and division, not seasonally adjusted Initial claimants for Mass layoff events unemployment insurance Census region and division April February March April April February March April 2006 2007 2007 2007 2006 2007 2007 2007 United States (1) ... 1,140 935 1,082 1,224 121,589 86,696 123,974 127,274 Northeast ................... 308 179 137 315 34,615 18,272 14,613 35,637 New England ............. 52 25 17 39 6,268 2,602 1,650 4,637 Middle Atlantic ......... 256 154 120 276 28,347 15,670 12,963 31,000 South ....................... 177 168 238 248 18,283 17,850 34,812 26,211 South Atlantic .......... 98 84 115 147 10,728 9,938 13,072 13,763 East South Central ...... 41 42 77 54 4,108 4,336 15,237 6,813 West South Central ...... 38 42 46 47 3,447 3,576 6,503 5,635 Midwest ..................... 243 239 283 222 34,494 26,603 33,410 23,045 East North Central ...... 203 198 225 190 30,704 23,364 27,218 20,560 West North Central ...... 40 41 58 32 3,790 3,239 6,192 2,485 West ........................ 412 349 424 439 34,197 23,971 41,139 42,381 Mountain ................ 47 25 41 73 5,769 1,833 3,200 8,024 Pacific ................. 365 324 383 366 28,428 22,138 37,939 34,357 1 See footnote 1, table 3. NOTE: The States (including the District of Columbia) that comprise the census divisions are: New England: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont; Middle Atlantic: New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania; South Atlantic: Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia; East South Central: Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Tennessee; West South Central: Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas; East North Central: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin; West North Central: Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota; Mountain: Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming; and Pacific: Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington. Table 6. State distribution: Mass layoff events and initial claimants for unemployment insurance,not seasonally adjusted Initial claimants for Mass layoff events unemployment insurance State April February March April April February March April 2006 2007 2007 2007 2006 2007 2007 2007 Total (1) ............ 1,140 935 1,082 1,224 121,589 86,696 123,974 127,274 Alabama ................. 9 16 26 17 741 1,757 3,373 1,684 Alaska .................. 5 - - 5 694 - - 621 Arizona ................. 17 (2) 6 32 2,709 (2) 362 4,656 Arkansas ................ 5 (2) (2) 4 432 (2) (2) 409 California .............. 321 299 333 319 24,551 19,809 33,172 28,883 Colorado ................ 6 (2) 4 10 768 (2) 458 784 Connecticut ............. 8 3 (2) (2) 673 309 (2) (2) Delaware ................ - (2) - (2) - (2) - (2) District of Columbia .... - - - - - - - - Florida ................. 34 39 51 59 2,363 2,616 4,562 3,524 Georgia ................. 20 15 14 26 4,191 1,831 1,635 2,369 Hawaii .................. 6 - 4 3 422 - 323 185 Idaho ................... 3 10 8 3 349 615 537 499 Illinois ................ 29 44 54 34 3,380 4,684 8,754 4,497 Indiana ................. 22 21 19 20 2,260 1,963 1,927 1,887 Iowa .................... 7 14 11 7 987 1,469 1,285 632 Kansas .................. (2) 3 4 3 (2) 215 930 235 Kentucky ................ 17 16 32 17 2,174 1,333 6,623 2,936 Louisiana ............... (2) 8 5 7 (2) 492 446 1,755 Maine ................... (2) 3 3 3 (2) 303 233 201 Maryland ................ 15 8 6 9 1,277 747 462 1,048 Massachusetts ........... 17 7 4 11 2,001 442 268 1,020 Michigan ................ 41 38 51 34 7,191 6,507 6,508 3,789 Minnesota ............... 12 9 15 11 814 615 1,231 817 Mississippi ............. 6 4 10 4 430 254 4,428 217 Missouri ................ 13 14 22 7 1,008 801 2,347 445 Montana ................. 3 (2) 4 (2) 220 (2) 319 (2) Nebraska ................ 4 - 3 (2) 495 - 218 (2) Nevada .................. 11 6 11 14 1,053 638 842 1,050 New Hampshire ........... 5 (2) 3 6 504 (2) 462 631 New Jersey .............. 53 27 35 50 6,259 2,558 3,529 4,749 New Mexico .............. (2) 4 6 8 (2) 229 548 592 New York ................ 102 20 40 116 13,386 2,184 4,636 15,254 North Carolina .......... 7 5 22 13 568 518 3,986 1,210 North Dakota ............ (2) (2) (2) (2) (2) (2) (2) (2) Ohio .................... 53 41 43 55 12,182 4,175 4,444 6,024 Oklahoma ................ (2) 13 4 4 (2) 1,377 1,178 354 Oregon .................. 16 12 30 21 1,296 1,264 3,272 2,790 Pennsylvania ............ 101 107 45 110 8,702 10,928 4,798 10,997 Rhode Island ............ 7 7 (2) 8 1,528 1,249 (2) 1,589 South Carolina .......... 11 7 10 26 1,314 641 1,210 3,291 South Dakota ............ (2) - (2) (2) (2) - (2) (2) Tennessee ............... 9 6 9 16 763 992 813 1,976 Texas ................... 30 20 35 32 2,354 1,656 4,762 3,117 Utah .................... 4 - (2) 4 381 - (2) 315 Vermont ................. 13 4 4 10 1,311 240 465 1,052 Virginia ................ 9 8 10 9 830 3,476 1,091 628 Washington .............. 17 13 16 18 1,465 1,065 1,172 1,878 West Virginia ........... (2) (2) (2) 4 (2) (2) (2) 305 Wisconsin ............... 58 54 58 47 5,691 6,035 5,585 4,363 Wyoming ................. (2) - (2) - (2) - (2) - Puerto Rico ............. 8 8 15 16 767 535 1,355 1,556 1 See footnote 1, table 3. 2 Data do not meet BLS or state agency disclosure standards. NOTE: Dash represents zero.