May 23, 2008 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Mass layoffs down in April 2008

In April, employers took 1,308 mass layoff actions, seasonally adjusted, as measured by new filings for unemployment insurance benefits during the month. Each action involved at least 50 persons from a single employer; the number of workers involved totaled 133,914, on a seasonally adjusted basis.

[Chart data—TXT]

The number of mass layoff events in April 2008 decreased by 263 from the prior month, while the number of associated initial claims decreased by 23,242.

In April, 483 mass layoff events were reported in the manufacturing sector, seasonally adjusted, resulting in 60,552 initial claims. Over the month, mass layoff events in manufacturing remained essentially unchanged, but initial claims decreased by 3,536.

These data are from the Mass Layoff Statistics program. To learn more, see "Mass Layoffs in April 2008," (PDF) (HTML) news release USDL 08-0688.