November 25, 2005 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Layoffs in October 2005

In October 2005, employers took 1,088 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 106,238, on a seasonally adjusted basis.

The number of layoff events in October declined by 1,132 from September to 1,088, the lowest number of events for any month since October 2000. The number of associated initial claims fell by 181,454 from September to 106,238 and was at its lowest total for any month since August 1998. 

These over-the-month declines in the number of events and initial claims reflect the falloff from the large number of layoffs in Louisiana and Mississippi during September that followed Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

These data are from the Mass Layoff Statistics program. Mass layoffs data for September and October 2005 are preliminary and subject to revision. To learn more, see "Mass Layoffs in October 2005" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 05-2237.