May 24, 2006 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Mass-layoff initial claims for unemployment insurance, April 2006

In April 2006, mass layoff actions initiated by employers resulted in 118,504 workers filing claims for unemployment insurance benefits.

Initial claimants for unemployment insurance due to mass layoff events, January 2003 to April 2006
[Chart data—TXT]

The number of initial claims decreased by 51 from March 2006. The number of initial claims in April 2006 is lower than the number recorded a year earlier, 139,575.

About 4 in 10 claims for unemployment benefits in April 2006 were in the manufacturing sector. The number of mass layoff events in manufacturing was higher than a month earlier, while the number of initial claims decreased.

These data are from the Mass Layoff Statistics survey. To learn more, see Mass Layoffs in April 2006 (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 06-895. These statistics are seasonally adjusted. Initial claimants are persons who file any notice of unemployment to initiate a request for compensation. Mass layoff events involve at least 50 initial claims for unemployment insurance benefits filed against a single establishment.

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