October 25, 2002 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Mass layoffs down in September from a year earlier

Employers initiated 1,060 mass layoff actions in September 2002, as measured by new filings for unemployment insurance benefits during the month. Each action involved at least 50 persons from a single establishment, and the number of workers involved totaled 122,277.

[Chart data—TXT]

A year earlier, in September 2001, there were 1,327 mass layoff events involving 160,402 workers. 

Over 9 percent of the initial claims in September 2002 were in general freight trucking (11,348). An additional 6 percent were in the temporary help services industry (7,587).

In January through September 2002, both the total number of events, at 14,150, and initial claims, at 1,567,505, were lower than in January-September 2001 (14,475 and 1,734,530, respectively).

These data are from the Mass Layoff Statistics program. Mass layoffs data for September 2002 are preliminary and subject to revision. For more information, see news release USDL 02-602, "Mass Layoffs in September 2002" (PDF) (TXT).