September 26, 2000 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Second-quarter extended mass layoffs trend downward

There were 1,187 extended mass layoff actions by employers in the second quarter of 2000, sharply lower than the 1,444 reported in April-June 1999.

Number of extended mass layoff events in second quarter of each year, 1995-2000
[Chart data—TXT]

The number of second-quarter mass layoffs has dropped three years in a row since reaching 1,587 in 1997. The number of layoff events in the second quarter of 2000 was at the lowest level for any April-June period since the resumption of the Mass Layoff Statistics program in April 1995.

The completion of seasonal work was the major reason cited for layoffs in the second quarter, accounting for 44 percent of all events. Permanent closure of worksites occurred in 14 percent of all events.

These data are a product of the Mass Layoff Statistics program. "Extended mass layoffs" last more than 30 days and involve 50 or more individuals from a single establishment filing initial claims for unemployment insurance during a consecutive 5-week period. These data do not include the decline in federal government employment of temporary census workers as they completed their assignments. Additional information is available in "Extended Mass Layoffs in the Second Quarter of 2000", news release USDL 00-266.

Happy 10th Birthday, TED!

The very first issue of The Editor's Desk (TED) was posted on September 28, 1998. TED was the first online-only publication of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For 10 years, BLS has been committed to posting a new TED article each business day, for a total of over 2,400 articles so far.

Find out more about the story of TED