For release 10:00 a.m. (EST) Tuesday, November 23, 2010 USDL-10-1627
Technical information: (202) 691-6392 * mlsinfo@bls.gov * www.bls.gov/mls
Media contact: (202) 691-5902 * PressOffice@bls.gov
MASS LAYOFFS -- OCTOBER 2010
Employers took 1,651 mass layoff actions in October that resulted in
the separation of 148,059 workers, seasonally adjusted, as measured by
new filings for unemployment insurance benefits during the month, the
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Each action involved
at least 50 persons from a single employer. The number of mass layoff
events in October increased by 121 from the prior month, and the number
of associated initial claims increased by 9,839. In October, 356 mass
layoff events were reported in the manufacturing sector, seasonally ad-
justed, resulting in 37,438 initial claims; both figures increased over
the month. (See table 1.)
The national unemployment rate was 9.6 percent in October, unchanged
from the prior month and down from 10.1 percent a year earlier. In
October, total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 151,000 over
the month and by 829,000 from a year earlier.
Industry Distribution (Not Seasonally Adjusted)
The number of mass layoff events in October was 1,642 on a not season-
ally adjusted basis; the number of associated initial claims was 148,638.
(See table 2.) Over the year, the number of mass layoff events decreased
by 292, and associated initial claims decreased by 45,266. Fourteen of
the 19 major industry sectors in the private economy reported over-the-
year decreases in initial claims, led by manufacturing. Manufacturing
reached an October program low in terms of average weekly claims, while
health care and social assistance reached an October program high. (Aver-
age weekly analysis mitigates the effect of differing lengths of months.
See the Technical Note. Data began in 1995.)
The manufacturing sector accounted for 21 percent of all mass layoff
events and 27 percent of initial claims filed in October. A year ear-
lier, manufacturing made up 29 percent of events and 36 percent of ini-
tial claims. Within manufacturing, the number of claimants in October
was greatest in food and transportation equipment. (See table 3.) Fif-
teen of the 21 manufacturing subsectors experienced over-the-year de-
creases in initial claims, with the largest declines in transportation
equipment and in machinery.
Government registered over-the-year increases in mass layoff events and
initial claims. Year-to-date initial claim totals through October for
government are the highest on record (with data available back to 1996),
due in part to layoffs in educational services and the completion of
work on the decennial census. (See table 3.)
The six-digit industry with the largest number of initial claims in
October was temporary help services. (See table A.) The table includes
both publicly and privately owned entities.
Table A. Industries with the largest number of mass layoff initial claims in
October 2010, not seasonally adjusted
October peak
Industry
Initial claims Year Initial claims
Temporary help services (1) ............... 12,153 1998 18,760
Professional employer organizations (1) ... 3,508 2008 7,242
Motion picture and video production ....... 3,266 1997 7,692
Farm labor contractors and crew leaders ... 3,158 1998 9,617
Warehouse clubs and supercenters .......... 2,915 2010 2,915
Food service contractors .................. 2,672 2009 3,233
Highway, street, and bridge construction .. 2,564 2009 3,870
Discount department stores ................ 2,449 2002 4,959
Fruit and vegetable canning ............... 2,362 2002 4,500
Automobile manufacturing .................. 2,165 2008 10,508
1 See the Technical Note for more information on these industries.
Geographic Distribution (Not Seasonally Adjusted)
All four regions and 8 of the 9 divisions experienced over-the-year de-
creases in initial claims due to mass layoffs in October. Among the cen-
sus regions, the Midwest registered the largest over-the-year declines in
initial claims. Of the geographic divisions, the East North Central had
the largest over-the-year decline in initial claims.
California recorded the highest number of initial claims in October, fol-
lowed by Pennsylvania and Florida. Thirty-two states experienced over-the-
year decreases in initial claims, led by Michigan, Ohio, California, and
Illinois. (See table 6.) Maine, North Dakota, South Dakota, and West Vir-
ginia had no mass layoff activity during the month. Arizona and Wyoming
reached October program highs for average weekly initial claims.
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 lay-
offs. 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 lay-
offs"). 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 Mass Layoffs news release for November is scheduled to be released on
Wednesday, December 22, 2010, at 10:00 a.m. (EST).
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| |
| Corrections to Seasonally Adjusted Data |
| |
| Monthly national Mass Layoffs data for April through September |
| 2010 were found to contain errors in each of the 6 seasonally |
| adjusted series. This release and the MLS database contain the |
| correct seasonally adjusted data for April-October 2010. Not |
| seasonally adjusted data and regional office news releases were |
| not affected. |
| |
| |
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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
employers which have at least 50 initial claims filed against them during
a consecutive 5-week period. These employers then are contacted 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 quarterly 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; Federal Relay
Service: (800) 877-8339.
Definitions
Employer. Employers in the MLS program include those covered by state
unemployment insurance laws. Information on employers is obtained from the
Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) program, which is adminis-
tered by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
Industry. Employers are classified according to the 2007 version of the
North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). For temporary help
and professional employers organization industries, monthly MLS-related
statistics generally reflect layoffs related to underlying client companies
in other industries. An individual layoff action at a client company can
be small, but when initial claimants associated with many such layoffs are
assigned to a temporary help or professional employer organization firm, a
mass layoff event may trigger.
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 insur-
ance benefits filed against an employer 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 1 year and 4 weeks in
another. The effects of these differences could seriously distort the sea-
sonal 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, November 2006 to
October 2010, seasonally adjusted
Total Private nonfarm Manufacturing
Date
Initial Initial Initial
Events claimants Events claimants Events claimants
2006
November ................... 1,244 135,465 1,128 125,976 413 58,509
December ................... 1,227 134,176 1,123 124,570 376 51,403
2007
January .................... 1,264 130,834 1,113 119,874 404 55,217
February ................... 1,191 121,289 1,075 112,607 374 54,581
March ...................... 1,225 126,391 1,113 117,760 386 48,298
April ...................... 1,268 129,098 1,135 118,175 362 43,205
May ........................ 1,172 118,648 1,070 111,103 345 44,391
June ....................... 1,241 131,394 1,125 122,123 338 37,931
July ....................... 1,274 130,331 1,169 122,381 403 55,973
August ..................... 1,247 126,108 1,158 118,575 323 34,902
September .................. 1,255 123,632 1,160 116,744 436 51,814
October .................... 1,370 137,108 1,248 128,387 449 58,360
November ................... 1,415 148,952 1,289 139,665 424 58,543
December ................... 1,569 155,095 1,448 145,666 483 60,368
2008
January .................... 1,481 151,269 1,348 140,570 436 57,147
February ................... 1,578 162,152 1,432 150,712 470 60,276
March ...................... 1,487 151,539 1,372 141,574 436 56,919
April ...................... 1,327 133,318 1,201 122,651 460 59,377
May ........................ 1,604 170,619 1,465 160,529 468 62,345
June ....................... 1,674 170,329 1,523 158,084 501 68,403
July ....................... 1,531 152,447 1,389 141,707 461 61,417
August ..................... 1,845 189,798 1,711 179,737 607 78,172
September .................. 2,222 235,755 2,049 220,832 634 81,989
October .................... 2,287 239,768 2,125 226,098 721 95,301
November ................... 2,489 240,181 2,334 227,368 929 107,072
December ................... 2,461 243,505 2,277 229,171 962 115,961
2009
January .................... 2,279 251,807 2,115 238,990 764 109,124
February ................... 2,737 289,162 2,592 274,040 1,186 141,264
March ...................... 2,913 295,970 2,715 279,671 1,202 146,381
April ...................... 2,663 263,162 2,461 247,329 1,033 125,093
May ........................ 2,794 306,788 2,589 289,012 1,183 145,166
June ....................... 2,598 260,596 2,371 241,864 1,072 135,844
July ....................... 2,039 196,578 1,818 176,542 565 66,918
August ..................... 2,480 238,911 2,244 218,425 798 87,201
September .................. 2,326 221,639 2,109 204,462 783 90,440
October .................... 2,055 205,502 1,856 187,880 594 65,801
November ................... 1,813 163,823 1,650 151,810 485 54,858
December ................... 1,726 153,127 1,542 138,747 433 44,072
2010
January .................... 1,761 182,261 1,585 168,466 486 62,556
February ................... 1,570 155,718 1,406 142,240 376 43,100
March ...................... 1,628 150,864 1,432 136,446 356 39,290
April(c) ................... 1,646 164,325 1,478 149,621 388 50,083
May(c) ..................... 1,676 164,115 1,416 142,594 320 30,729
June(c) .................... 1,757 158,479 1,529 139,029 332 33,012
July(c) .................... 1,520 135,389 1,301 117,546 286 29,826
August(c) .................. 1,655 165,528 1,448 143,056 400 48,858
September(c) ............... 1,530 138,220 1,317 118,741 334 34,096
October .................... 1,651 148,059 1,445 130,448 356 37,438
c = corrected
Table 2. Mass layoff events and initial claimants for unemployment insurance, November 2006 to
October 2010, not seasonally adjusted
Total Private nonfarm Manufacturing
Date
Initial Initial Initial
Events claimants Events claimants Events claimants
2006
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 ...................... 1,219 127,444 1,115 118,040 309 35,229
May ........................ 923 85,816 856 81,153 224 26,527
June ....................... 1,599 172,810 1,318 148,669 313 36,571
July ....................... 1,599 175,419 1,450 164,939 684 101,390
August ..................... 963 93,458 908 88,345 220 23,361
September .................. 717 67,385 667 64,026 246 29,381
October .................... 1,083 108,455 929 97,716 338 50,918
November ................... 1,799 198,220 1,593 181,184 514 75,413
December ................... 2,167 224,214 2,071 216,898 699 91,754
2008
January .................... 1,647 154,503 1,520 144,191 488 54,418
February ................... 1,269 119,508 1,178 113,587 361 42,527
March ...................... 1,089 114,541 1,039 110,147 333 43,740
April ...................... 1,272 130,810 1,172 121,625 394 48,188
May ........................ 1,552 159,471 1,438 150,462 388 51,698
June ....................... 1,622 166,742 1,315 140,916 309 42,097
July ....................... 1,891 200,382 1,687 186,018 760 108,733
August ..................... 1,427 139,999 1,343 133,146 414 51,912
September .................. 1,292 129,586 1,202 122,505 361 46,391
October .................... 2,125 221,784 1,917 205,553 689 100,457
November ................... 2,574 241,589 2,389 226,657 997 107,620
December ................... 3,377 351,305 3,232 340,220 1,378 172,529
2009
January .................... 3,806 388,813 3,633 375,293 1,461 172,757
February ................... 2,262 218,438 2,173 210,755 945 103,588
March ...................... 2,191 228,387 2,107 221,397 940 114,747
April ...................... 2,547 256,930 2,385 243,321 887 100,872
May ........................ 2,738 289,628 2,572 274,047 1,005 123,683
June ....................... 2,519 256,357 2,051 216,063 674 85,726
July ....................... 3,054 336,654 2,659 296,589 1,133 154,208
August ..................... 1,428 125,024 1,334 117,193 436 41,151
September .................. 1,371 123,177 1,258 115,141 448 51,126
October .................... 1,934 193,904 1,678 172,883 566 69,655
November ................... 1,870 164,496 1,679 150,751 517 55,053
December ................... 2,310 214,648 2,166 203,655 615 64,540
2010
January .................... 2,860 278,679 2,682 265,074 962 104,846
February ................... 1,183 102,818 1,091 96,022 282 30,728
March ...................... 1,197 111,727 1,111 105,514 273 29,745
April ...................... 1,840 199,690 1,697 184,654 424 55,178
May ........................ 1,354 123,333 1,170 109,203 216 19,334
June ....................... 1,861 171,190 1,355 125,872 212 21,083
July ....................... 2,124 206,254 1,732 172,248 532 64,200
August ..................... 976 92,435 897 83,021 230 23,088
September .................. 920 77,654 806 67,987 187 19,403
October .................... 1,642 148,638 1,373 127,865 351 40,861
Table 3. Industry distribution: Mass layoff events and initial claimants for unemployment insurance
Initial claimants for
Mass layoff events unemployment insurance
Industry
October August September October October August September October
2009 2010 2010 2010 2009 2010 2010 2010
Seasonally adjusted
Total ..................................... 2,055 (c)1,655 (c)1,530 1,651 205,502 (c)165,528 (c)138,220 148,059
Total, private nonfarm ........................ 1,856 (c)1,448 (c)1,317 1,445 187,880 (c)143,056 (c)118,741 130,448
Manufacturing ............................... 594 (c)400 (c)334 356 65,801 (c)48,858 (c)34,096 37,438
Not seasonally adjusted
Total (1) ................................. 1,934 976 920 1,642 193,904 92,435 77,654 148,638
Total, private .................................. 1,806 923 823 1,493 181,476 84,610 68,913 136,178
Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting .. 128 26 17 120 8,593 1,589 926 8,313
Total, private nonfarm ........................ 1,678 897 806 1,373 172,883 83,021 67,987 127,865
Mining ...................................... 15 (2) 4 6 1,038 (2) 447 390
Utilities ................................... 6 - (2) (2) 550 - (2) (2)
Construction ................................ 205 105 89 175 15,258 6,910 6,137 13,500
Manufacturing ............................... 566 230 187 351 69,655 23,088 19,403 40,861
Food .................................... 91 54 31 80 8,999 4,312 3,216 8,639
Beverage and tobacco products ........... 12 (2) (2) 15 1,001 (2) (2) 1,166
Textile mills ........................... 9 4 3 7 1,407 888 277 1,019
Textile product mills ................... 3 3 (2) 4 419 272 (2) 271
Apparel ................................. 7 9 3 10 438 573 194 1,399
Leather and allied products ............. - (2) - (2) - (2) - (2)
Wood products ........................... 41 17 22 26 4,326 1,355 1,726 2,570
Paper ................................... 14 7 4 4 1,216 559 239 334
Printing and related support activities . 17 3 3 6 1,337 246 277 435
Petroleum and coal products ............. 3 - 3 (2) 312 - 180 (2)
Chemicals ............................... 8 8 (2) 8 533 562 (2) 723
Plastics and rubber products ............ 35 10 (2) 9 2,672 691 (2) 656
Nonmetallic mineral products ............ 16 8 7 15 1,172 621 609 1,460
Primary metals .......................... 44 7 13 16 4,703 835 1,381 1,358
Fabricated metal products ............... 49 12 13 20 4,702 925 1,006 1,667
Machinery ............................... 51 18 11 26 10,892 2,077 1,787 4,968
Computer and electronic products ........ 29 15 8 13 2,169 999 562 851
Electrical equipment and appliances ..... 29 8 10 15 3,394 1,303 1,793 1,935
Transportation equipment ................ 72 32 30 50 17,069 4,869 4,166 8,581
Furniture and related products .......... 22 6 11 17 1,865 1,417 792 1,929
Miscellaneous manufacturing ............. 14 4 8 6 1,029 319 573 596
Wholesale trade ............................. 50 18 16 30 4,645 1,324 1,011 2,079
Retail trade ................................ 124 108 99 126 12,914 10,430 9,764 13,260
Transportation and warehousing .............. 61 45 31 45 5,541 4,356 2,268 3,948
Information ................................. 57 36 24 52 9,567 6,155 2,365 5,640
Finance and insurance ....................... 49 24 29 31 3,716 1,945 2,602 2,342
Real estate and rental and leasing .......... 13 7 4 9 870 514 267 455
Professional and technical services ......... 57 43 23 43 5,974 4,657 1,504 3,447
Management of companies and enterprises ..... 6 6 (2) (2) 812 490 (2) (2)
Administrative and waste services ........... 260 158 133 275 25,694 14,605 10,059 23,531
Educational services ........................ 3 6 13 11 226 902 786 657
Health care and social assistance ........... 37 36 26 54 2,165 2,532 1,660 4,056
Arts, entertainment, and recreation ......... 34 17 39 31 2,435 1,286 2,799 2,674
Accommodation and food services ............. 126 50 72 118 11,346 3,424 5,735 10,024
Other services, except public administration 9 (2) 12 10 477 (2) 864 506
Unclassified ................................ - - 1 1 - - 78 73
Government ...................................... 128 53 97 149 12,428 7,825 8,741 12,460
Federal ..................................... 28 18 19 41 2,550 1,933 1,898 4,336
State ....................................... 32 12 22 32 3,433 894 1,575 2,967
Local ....................................... 68 23 56 76 6,445 4,998 5,268 5,157
1 Data were reported by all states and the District of Columbia.
2 Data do not meet BLS or state agency disclosure standards.
c = corrected
NOTE: Dash represents zero.
Table 4. Mass layoff events and initial claimants for unemployment insurance, October 2008 to October 2010, 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
2008
October .................... 2,125 221,784 1,917 205,553
November ................... 2,574 241,589 2,389 226,657
December ................... 3,377 351,305 3,232 340,220
Fourth Quarter ............. 8,076 814,678 7,538 772,430 3,582 766,780 47.5 99.3
2009
January .................... 3,806 388,813 3,633 375,293
February ................... 2,262 218,438 2,173 210,755
March ...................... 2,191 228,387 2,107 221,397
First Quarter .............. 8,259 835,638 7,913 807,445 3,979 835,551 50.3 103.5
April ...................... 2,547 256,930 2,385 243,321
May ........................ 2,738 289,628 2,572 274,047
June ....................... 2,519 256,357 2,051 216,063
Second Quarter ............. 7,804 802,915 7,008 733,431 3,395 731,049 48.4 99.7
July ....................... 3,054 336,654 2,659 296,589
August ..................... 1,428 125,024 1,334 117,193
September .................. 1,371 123,177 1,258 115,141
Third Quarter .............. 5,853 584,855 5,251 528,923 2,034 (r)406,823 38.7 76.9
October .................... 1,934 193,904 1,678 172,883
November ................... 1,870 164,496 1,679 150,751
December ................... 2,310 214,648 2,166 203,655
Fourth Quarter ............. 6,114 573,048 5,523 527,289 2,416 (r)468,560 43.7 (r)88.9
2010
January .................... 2,860 278,679 2,682 265,074
February ................... 1,183 102,818 1,091 96,022
March ...................... 1,197 111,727 1,111 105,514
First Quarter .............. 5,240 493,224 4,884 466,610 1,870 (r)367,930 38.3 (r)78.9
April ...................... 1,840 199,690 1,697 184,654
May ........................ 1,354 123,333 1,170 109,203
June ....................... 1,861 171,190 1,355 125,872
Second Quarter ............. 5,055 494,213 4,222 419,729 (r)2,011 (r)393,435 (r)47.6 (r)93.7
July ....................... 2,124 206,254 1,732 172,248
August ..................... 976 92,435 897 83,021
September .................. 920 77,654 806 67,987
Third Quarter .............. 4,020 376,343 3,435 323,256 (2)(p)1,297 (2)(p)177,807 (p)37.8 (p)55.0
October .................... 1,642 148,638 1,373 127,865
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
October August September October October August September October
2009 2010 2010 2010 2009 2010 2010 2010
United States (1) ... 1,934 976 920 1,642 193,904 92,435 77,654 148,638
Northeast ................... 260 183 160 246 22,709 16,706 14,411 20,922
New England ............. 30 34 15 25 2,134 3,743 1,357 1,940
Middle Atlantic ......... 230 149 145 221 20,575 12,963 13,054 18,982
South ....................... 499 274 259 368 45,772 21,631 21,507 35,853
South Atlantic .......... 279 160 153 213 23,144 12,404 11,811 21,191
East South Central ...... 87 55 41 70 9,545 4,584 3,633 7,095
West South Central ...... 133 59 65 85 13,083 4,643 6,063 7,567
Midwest ..................... 483 157 155 316 60,792 17,140 14,964 34,290
East North Central ...... 375 124 115 227 49,277 13,603 11,280 25,674
West North Central ...... 108 33 40 89 11,515 3,537 3,684 8,616
West ........................ 692 362 346 712 64,631 36,958 26,772 57,573
Mountain ................ 103 31 47 99 9,020 2,197 4,461 9,563
Pacific ................. 589 331 299 613 55,611 34,761 22,311 48,010
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
October August September October October August September October
2009 2010 2010 2010 2009 2010 2010 2010
Total (1) ............ 1,934 976 920 1,642 193,904 92,435 77,654 148,638
Alabama ................. 27 14 13 20 3,179 1,407 1,021 2,244
Alaska .................. 8 10 4 5 755 884 492 430
Arizona ................. 20 5 6 24 1,666 268 477 2,392
Arkansas ................ 17 3 3 7 1,954 275 301 790
California .............. 514 287 264 559 48,169 31,007 19,288 42,458
Colorado ................ 19 5 10 17 1,554 355 827 1,675
Connecticut ............. 9 8 (2) 7 671 880 (2) 523
Delaware ................ 3 (2) (2) 5 251 (2) (2) 403
District of Columbia .... (2) (2) - (2) (2) (2) - (2)
Florida ................. 167 93 91 105 11,851 6,506 6,001 9,277
Georgia ................. 39 30 24 32 3,880 2,996 2,438 2,969
Hawaii .................. 7 5 3 5 630 381 182 401
Idaho ................... 10 7 7 5 1,088 504 1,011 362
Illinois ................ 93 32 35 60 12,917 3,707 5,053 7,281
Indiana ................. 37 14 10 26 4,759 1,554 846 4,349
Iowa .................... 35 9 3 14 4,732 1,743 362 1,397
Kansas .................. 13 4 8 6 1,562 366 1,245 737
Kentucky ................ 36 18 10 20 4,656 1,422 1,454 2,828
Louisiana ............... 24 16 11 19 2,169 1,010 688 1,554
Maine ................... 3 (2) (2) - 177 (2) (2) -
Maryland ................ 6 6 6 9 479 363 528 796
Massachusetts ........... 9 16 7 11 596 1,464 476 858
Michigan ................ 70 14 11 34 9,543 2,385 758 3,010
Minnesota ............... 24 4 5 26 1,985 307 412 3,056
Mississippi ............. 10 14 12 15 602 1,057 741 1,017
Missouri ................ 31 12 19 37 2,556 864 1,115 2,866
Montana ................. 11 (2) 4 9 1,062 (2) 332 831
Nebraska ................ 4 4 5 6 559 257 550 560
Nevada .................. 19 7 13 26 1,361 484 1,238 2,396
New Hampshire ........... 3 6 (2) 3 263 657 (2) 302
New Jersey .............. 37 31 22 31 2,850 2,449 1,665 2,517
New Mexico .............. 11 (2) 3 7 761 (2) 238 545
New York ................ 68 59 52 61 6,961 5,547 5,499 5,443
North Carolina .......... 19 9 13 21 1,672 698 1,372 1,697
North Dakota ............ (2) - - - (2) - - -
Ohio .................... 75 27 22 45 10,569 2,569 1,638 4,734
Oklahoma ................ 7 (2) (2) 7 582 (2) (2) 484
Oregon .................. 35 18 17 22 3,936 1,671 1,635 2,540
Pennsylvania ............ 125 59 71 129 10,764 4,967 5,890 11,022
Rhode Island ............ (2) (2) (2) (2) (2) (2) (2) (2)
South Carolina .......... 19 11 7 21 2,692 792 724 3,479
South Dakota ............ - - - - - - - -
Tennessee ............... 14 9 6 15 1,108 698 417 1,006
Texas ................... 85 38 49 52 8,378 3,058 4,814 4,739
Utah .................... 9 (2) 4 7 1,058 (2) 338 758
Vermont ................. 3 (2) (2) (2) 254 (2) (2) (2)
Virginia ................ 22 8 11 19 1,955 747 689 2,444
Washington .............. 25 11 11 22 2,121 818 714 2,181
West Virginia ........... 3 - - - 250 - - -
Wisconsin ............... 100 37 37 62 11,489 3,388 2,985 6,300
Wyoming ................. 4 (2) - 4 470 (2) - 604
Puerto Rico ............. 12 12 16 22 1,079 987 1,382 2,191
1 See footnote 1, table 3.
2 Data do not meet BLS or state agency disclosure standards.
NOTE: Dash represents zero.
United States Department of Labor
