December 23, 2005 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Mass layoffs in November

In November 2005, employers took 1,183 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 118,098, on a seasonally adjusted basis. The number of layoff events in November rose by 95 from October and the number of associated initial claims increased by 11,860.

Data have been tabulated on the results of employer interviews for 899 mass layoff events that were potentially related to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. These layoff events occurred almost entirely in Louisiana and Mississippi during the period from August 28 to October 1. Of these events, 343 were identified by the employer as directly or indirectly due to the hurricanes and lasting more than 30 days. The number of workers in these extended mass layoffs totaled 49,480, not seasonally adjusted.

These data are from the Mass Layoff Statistics program. Mass layoffs data for October and November 2005 are preliminary and subject to revision. To learn more, see "Mass Layoffs in November 2005" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 05-2352.