February 14, 2007 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Extended mass layoffs, 2006

For all of 2006, employers reported 4,689 extended mass layoff actions, affecting 894,739 workers. Compared to 2005, the number of events was down from 4,881, but the number of separations was up from 884,661.

Number of separations due to extended mass layoff, 1996-2006
[Chart data—TXT]

Thirteen percent of extended events in 2006 were permanent closures, accounting for 150,951 worker separations. When compared with 2005, the share of separations that were associated with extended mass layoffs due to permanent closures rose by 5 percentage points.

During 2006, permanent closures were most numerous in the manufacturing sector, primarily in transportation equipment manufacturing and in food production. Reorganization within the company was most often cited as the reason for closures in manufacturing during 2006, accounting for 37 percent of the total closures in manufacturing.

These data come from the BLS Mass Layoff Statistics program. Learn more in "Extended Mass Layoffs in the Fourth Quarter of 2006 and Annual Totals for 2006" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 07-0244. Extended mass layoff events consist of fifty or more initial claims for unemployment insurance benefits from an establishment during a 5-week period, with at least 50 workers separated for more than 30 days. Data for 2006 are preliminary.

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