December 03, 2001 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Layoffs increase substantially in October

In October 2001, there were 1,816 mass layoff actions by employers as measured by new filings for unemployment insurance benefits during the month. Each layoff action involved at least 50 persons from a single establishment, and the number of workers involved totaled 212,695.

[Chart data—TXT]

The number of layoff events and initial claimants for unemployment insurance were the highest for the month of October since the series began in April 1995. Over the January-October 2001 period, the total number of events, at 16,221, and initial claims, at 1,935,871, were substantially higher than in January-October 2000, at 11,364 and 1,292,335, respectively.

These data are products of the Mass Layoff Statistics program. Mass layoffs data for September and October 2001 are preliminary and subject to revision. For more information, see news release USDL 01-446, Mass Layoffs in October 2001.