February 27, 2006 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Mass layoffs in January

In January 2006, employers took 1,113 mass layoff actions, seasonally adjusted, as measured by new filings for unemployment insurance benefits during the month.

[Chart data—TXT]

Each action involved at least 50 persons from a single establishment, and the number of workers involved totaled 108,378. The number of layoff events fell by 195 from December 2005, and was the lowest for any month since October 2000.

The number of initial claims due to mass layoff actions declined by 41,187 over the month. In the manufacturing sector, 274 mass layoff events were reported during January 2006, resulting in 29,541 claims. Both figures were the lowest ever recorded in the program.

These data are from the Mass Layoff Statistics program. Mass layoffs data for December 2005 and January 2006 are preliminary and subject to revision. To learn more, see "Mass Layoffs in January 2006" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 06-319.