February 26, 2004 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Mass layoffs up in January 2004

In January 2004, there were 2,428 mass layoff actions by employers, as measured by new filings for unemployment insurance benefits during the month. Each action involved at least 50 persons from a single establishment, and the number of workers involved totaled 239,454.

[Chart data—TXT]

This marked the most events for a January and the third highest January level of mass-layoff initial claims since the series began in the mid-1990s. Both the number of layoff events and initial claims were higher than a year ago. January 2004 marked only the third time in the last two years that initial claims had increased over the year.

These data are from the Mass Layoff Statistics program. Mass layoffs data for January 2004 are preliminary and subject to revision. See "Mass Layoffs in January 2004" (PDF) (TXT), USDL 04-287, for more information.