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

Mass layoffs in December

In December 2005, employers took 1,308 mass layoff actions, seasonally adjusted, as measured by new filings for unemployment insurance benefits during the month.

Mass layoff events, seasonally adjusted, December 2004-December 2005
[Chart data—TXT]

Each action involved at least 50 persons from a single establishment, and the number of workers involved totaled 149,565. The number of layoff events in December rose by 103 from November, and the number of associated initial claims increased by 28,782.

Seasonally adjusted mass layoff data have been revised using updated seasonal adjustment factors that incorporate 2005 data. Seasonally adjusted estimates back to January 2001 were subject to revision. The totals for each of the six seasonally adjusted series for January-December 2005 (as originally published and as revised) are available at http://www.bls.gov/mls/mlssarevision.htm, along with additional information about the revisions.

These data are from the Mass Layoff Statistics program. Mass layoffs data for November and December 2005 are preliminary and subject to revision. To learn more, see "Mass Layoffs in December 2005" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 06-122.

Happy 10th Birthday, TED!

The very first issue of The Editor's Desk (TED) was posted on September 28, 1998. TED was the first online-only publication of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For 10 years, BLS has been committed to posting a new TED article each business day, for a total of over 2,400 articles so far.

Find out more about the story of TED