July 23, 2007 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Layoffs in June 2007

In June, employers took 1,219 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; the number of workers involved totaled 127,897, on a seasonally adjusted basis. The number of mass layoff events increased by 37 from the prior month, and the number of associated initial claims rose by 9,483.

During June, 340 mass layoff events were reported in the manufacturing sector, seasonally adjusted, resulting in 39,273 initial claims. Compared with the prior month, mass layoff activity in manufacturing decreased by 25 events, and initial claims decreased by 9,599.

From January through June 2007, the total number of events (seasonally adjusted) at 7,433, and initial claims (seasonally adjusted) at 773,537, were higher than in January-June 2006 (6,685 and 701,254, respectively).

These data are from the Mass Layoff Statistics program. To learn more, see "Mass Layoffs in June 2007" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 07-1097.