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

Mass layoffs in July

In July 2006, employers took 1,125 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 114,895. The number of layoff events increased by 28 over the month; the number of associated initial claims decreased by 4,767 from June 2006.

In the manufacturing sector, 363 mass layoff events were reported during July 2006, resulting in 47,287 initial claims. Both the number of events and initial claims in manufacturing were higher than a month earlier.

These data are from the Mass Layoff Statistics program. To learn more, see "Mass Layoffs in July 2006" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 06-1477.