For release 10:00 a.m. (EST) Tuesday, November 10, 2009 USDL-09-1358
Technical information: (202) 691-6392 * mlsinfo@bls.gov * www.bls.gov/mls
Media contact: (202) 691-5902 * PressOffice@bls.gov
EXTENDED MASS LAYOFFS -- THIRD QUARTER OF 2009
Employers initiated 1,776 mass layoff events in the third quarter of 2009
that resulted in the separation of 277,924 workers from their jobs for at
least 31 days, according to preliminary figures released by the U.S. Bureau
of Labor Statistics. The number of extended mass layoff events reached a
record high for any third quarter (with data available back to 1995). (See
table A.) Third quarter program highs in the number of events were also re-
corded in half of the 18 major industry sectors, 2 of the 4 geographic re-
gions, 4 of the 9 divisions, and 15 states.
Separations due to business demand reasons increased by 27 percent from the
same period a year ago. Thirty-three percent of employers reporting an ex-
tended mass layoff event in the third quarter of 2009 indicated they antici-
pated some type of recall, up slightly from 29 percent a year earlier. Third
quarter 2009 layoff data are preliminary and are subject to revision. (See
the Technical Note.)
The national unemployment rate averaged 9.6 percent, not seasonally adjusted,
in the third quarter of 2009, up from 6.0 percent a year earlier. Private
nonfarm payroll employment, not seasonally adjusted, decreased by 5 percent
(-5,765,000) over the year.
Industry Distribution of Extended Layoffs
Manufacturing firms reported 511 extended mass layoff events involving 80,135
separations in third quarter 2009 and were responsible for 29 percent of pri-
vate nonfarm extended layoff events and related separations. A year earlier,
manufacturing made up 31 percent of events and 33 percent of separations.
(See table 1.) The largest numbers of separations within manufacturing were
associated with transportation equipment manufacturing (mostly from light
truck and utility vehicle manufacturing, and railroad rolling stock manufact-
uring) and food manufacturing (mostly related to fresh and frozen seafood pro-
cessing, and fruit and vegetable canning).
Nine major industry sectors reported third quarter program highs in 2009 in
terms of the number of extended mass layoff events in the private nonfarm
sector--construction; wholesale trade; transportation and warehousing; pro-
fessional and technical services; management of companies and enterprises; ad-
ministrative and waste services; educational services; arts, entertainment,
and recreation; and other services, except public administration.
Reasons for Extended Layoffs
Among the seven categories of economic reasons for extended mass layoffs,
business demand factors accounted for 48 percent of events and 44 percent of
separations during the third quarter of 2009; up from 41 percent of events and
33 percent of separations in the same period a year earlier. (See table 2.)
Separations related to business demand factors increased by 26,286, or 27 per-
cent, over the year. Within the business demand category, the largest over-
the-year increases in separations were due to slack work/insufficient demand
(+14,661) and contract completion (+14,267).
Extended mass layoff separations decreased from a year ago in all economic
reason categories except business demand and seasonal. The largest decrease was
in organizational changes (-15,463),largely in the business-ownership change
reason. The financial issues economic category also saw a large decrease
(-12,686), with the largest decline associated with bankruptcy.
Table A. Selected measures of extended mass layoff activity
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| | |
Period | Layoff events | Separations | Initial claimants
| | |
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| | |
2005 | | |
| | |
January-March ........| 1,142 | 186,506 | 185,486
April-June ...........| 1,203 | 246,099 | 212,673
July-September........| 1,136 | 201,878 | 190,186
October-December .....| 1,400 | 250,178 | 246,188
| | |
2006 | | |
| | |
January-March ........| 963 | 183,089 | 193,510
April-June ...........| 1,353 | 295,964 | 264,927
July-September .......| 929 | 160,254 | 161,764
October-December .....| 1,640 | 296,662 | 330,954
| | |
2007 | | |
| | |
January-March ........| 1,110 | 225,600 | 199,250
April-June ...........| 1,421 | 278,719 | 259,234
July-September .......| 1,018 | 160,024 | 173,077
October-December .....| 1,814 | 301,592 | 347,151
| | |
2008 | | |
| | |
January-March ........| 1,340 | 230,098 | 259,292
April-June (r) .......| 1,756 | 354,713 | 339,630
July-September (r) ...| 1,581 | 290,453 | 304,340
October-December (r) .| 3,582 | 641,714 | 766,592
| | |
2009 | | |
| | |
January-March (r) ....| 3,979 | 705,133 | 835,017
April-June (r) .......| 3,396 | 650,679 | 727,494
July-September (p) ...| 1,776 | 277,924 | 266,938
| | |
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r = revised.
p = preliminary.
Movement of Work
In the third quarter of 2009, 75 extended mass layoffs involved the movement
of work and were associated with 12,107 separated workers. The number of such
events was down 11 percent from the third quarter of 2008, while the number of
separations was down 19 percent. Movement of work layoffs accounted for 5 percent
of nonseasonal layoff events in the third quarter of 2009. (See table 9.)
Six out of 10 extended mass layoff events related to movement of work were from
manufacturing industries. In comparison, manufacturing accounted for less than 3
out of 10 events in the total private nonfarm economy. (See table 6.) Employers
cited an organizational change in more than half and business demand in more
than a quarter of extended mass layoff events involving movement of work. (See
table 7.) Among the regions, the largest proportions of workers affected by
movement of work were in the West and Midwest. (See table 8.)
Table B. Metropolitan areas with the largest number of initial claimants
associated with extended mass layoff events in the third quarter 2009, by
residency of claimants
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| |
| 2008 III (r) | 2009 III (p)
Metropolitan area |----------------|----------------
| | | |
| Initial | Rank | Initial | Rank
|claimants| |claimants|
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| | | |
Total, 372 metropolitan areas ................| 241,350 | | 223,684 |
| | | |
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, Calif. ....| 24,944 | 1 | 29,853 | 1
New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, | | | |
N.Y.-N.J.-Pa. .............................| 19,198 | 2 | 15,767 | 2
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, Calif. .......| 9,745 | 5 | 10,975 | 3
Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, Calif. ....| 11,217 | 4 | 9,845 | 4
Chicago-Naperville-Joliet, Ill.-Ind.-Wis. ...| 13,812 | 3 | 9,256 | 5
Peoria, Ill. ................................| 216 | 153 | 8,947 | 6
San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, Calif. .......| 5,734 | 7 | 6,374 | 7
Las Vegas-Paradise, Nev. ....................| 4,690 | 10 | 5,022 | 8
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, Calif. ......| 4,040 | 12 | 4,307 | 9
Sacramento--Arden-Arcade--Roseville, Calif. .| 4,856 | 8 | 4,293 | 10
| | | |
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r = revised.
p = preliminary.
NOTE: The geographic boundaries of the metropolitan areas shown in this
table are defined in Office of Management and Budget Bulletin 09-01,
November 20, 2008.
The 75 extended layoff events with movement of work for the third quarter of
2009 involved 107 identifiable relocations of work actions. Employers were able
to provide more complete separations information for 72 of the actions. (See
table 9.) Of these 72 actions, 81 percent involved work moving within the same
company, and 75 percent were domestic reassignments. (See table 10.)
Recall Expectations
About 33 percent of employers reporting an extended layoff in the third quarter
of 2009 indicated they anticipated some type of recall, up from 29 percent a year
earlier. (See table 11.) Of those employers expecting to recall workers, about
one-third indicated that the offer would be extended to all displaced employees.
Less than two-thirds of employers anticipated extending the offer to at least
half of the workers. Two-thirds of employers expecting to recall laid-off employ-
ees intend to do so within 6 months, a lower proportion than the same period a year
earlier. Excluding layoff events due to seasonal work and vacation period, in which
95 percent of the employers expected a recall, employers anticipated recalling laid-
off workers in just 22 percent of extended mass layoff events.
Size of Extended Layoffs
The average size of a layoff (as measured by separations per layoff event) in the
third quarter of 2009 was 156, down 28 from the third quarter a year earlier. Three
of the 18 major industry sectors registered average layoff sizes of 200 or more
workers per event in the third quarter--arts, entertainment, and recreation; profes-
sional and technical services; and administrative and waste services. (See table 12.)
Nearly half of all events involved between 50 and 99 workers and 73 percent of
events affected less than 150 workers. Layoffs involving between 50 and 99 workers
accounted for 22 percent of all separations during the period, and layoffs with
less than 150 separated workers accounted for 40 percent. Both these proportions
are up from a year earlier. Extended mass layoffs involving 500 or more workers
accounted for only 4 percent of events but 25 percent of the separated workers in
the third quarter of 2009, down from 6 percent of events and 31 percent of separa-
tions last year. (See table 13.)
Initial Claimant Characteristics
A total of 266,938 initial claimants for unemployment insurance were associated
with extended mass layoffs in the third quarter of 2009. Of these claimants, 13
percent were black, 18 percent were Hispanic, 36 percent were women, 35 percent
were 30 to 44 years of age, and 19 percent were 55 years of age or older. (See
table 3.) Among persons in the civilian labor force for the same period, 11 per-
cent were black, 15 percent were Hispanic, 47 percent were women, 33 percent were
age 30 to 44, and 19 percent were 55 years of age or older.
Geographic Distribution
Among the four census regions, the West and the Midwest recorded the highest num-
bers of separations due to extended mass layoff events in the third quarter of
2009. All regions except the West reported over-the-year decreases in the number
of separations. (See table 4.) Among the nine census divisions, the highest num-
bers of separations during the third quarter of 2009 were in the Middle Atlantic,
East North Central, South Atlantic, and Pacific. (See table 4.) Only three divi-
sions reported over-the-year increases in terms of the numbers of separations--
New England, West North Central, and Mountain.
California recorded the largest number of worker separations, followed by Florida,
New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, and New Jersey. (See table 5.) After ex-
cluding the impact of seasonal reasons, California still reported the highest num-
ber of job cuts (81,079), followed by Florida (24,066) and Pennsylvania (16,833).
Four states reported third quarter program highs in terms of numbers of separa-
tions--California, Kentucky, Missouri, and New Jersey.
Eighty-four percent of the initial claimants associated with extended mass layoff
events in the third quarter of 2009 resided within metropolitan areas, an increase
of more than 4 percentage points from a year earlier. Among the 372 metropolitan
areas, Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, Calif., reported the highest number of
resident initial claimants in the third quarter of 2009. The next highest were
New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, N.Y.-N.J.-Pa., San Francisco-Oakland-
Fremont, Calif., and Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, Calif. Both Peoria, Ill.,
and San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, Calif., moved into the top 10 metropolitan
areas in terms of initial claims by residency of claimant in the third quarter of
2009, replacing Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, Fla., and Tampa-St. Peters-
burg-Clearwater, Fla., from the previous year. (See table B.)
Note
The quarterly series on extended mass layoffs cover layoffs of at least 31-days
duration that involve 50 or more individuals from a single employer filing ini-
tial claims for unemployment insurance during a consecutive 5-week period. Ap-
proximately 30 days after a mass layoff is triggered, the employer is contacted
for additional information. Data for the first quarter are preliminary and sub-
ject to revision. This release also includes revised data for previous quarters.
Data are not seasonally adjusted, but survey data suggest that there is a seasonal
pattern to layoffs. Thus, comparisons between consecutive quarters should not be
used as an indicator of trend. For additional information about the program, see
the Technical Note.
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Mass Layoffs in October 2009 is scheduled to be released on Friday, November 20, 2009,
at 10:00 a.m. (EST).
