Employers in Florida took 1,091 mass layoff actions in 2011 that resulted in the separation of 79,766 workers, as measured by new filings for unemployment insurance benefits during the year, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. (See chart 1) Each action involved at least 50 persons from a single employer. Regional Commissioner Janet S. Rankin noted that the number of initial claims for unemployment insurance has declined each of the last two years after reaching 131,190 in 2009, the highest level in the history of the series, which goes back to 1996 on an annual basis. In 2011, initial claims for unemployment insurance declined by 9,010, following a record drop of 42,414 in 2010.

Industry distribution

Of all the industry sectors in Florida, administrative and waste services experienced the most mass layoff events in 2011, with 360–more than twice the number occurring in any other industry. (See table 1.) This sector also had the largest number of initial claimants for unemployment insurance at 26,959, making up 33.8 percent of the state’s total. Retail trade was second with 145 mass layoff events and 12,064 associated claims during the year, followed by accommodation and food services with 106 events and 7,388 claims. Combined, these three industries accounted for almost three-fifths of all initial claimants in the state in 2011.

Of the 11 sectors recording a drop in mass layoffs-related initial claimants from 2010 to 2011, administrative and waste services had the largest decrease at 2,683, followed by accommodation and food services with 1,622. Two other sectors finished 2011 with at least 1,000 fewer initial claimants than in 2010, retail trade (-1,295) and finance and insurance (-1,176). (See table A) On a percentage basis, finance and insurance experienced the largest over-the-year decrease in annual claims, down 40.2 percent, followed by arts, entertainment, and recreation, down 39.0 percent.

In contrast, six sectors saw a rise in the number of initial claims associated with mass layoff events in 2011, led by education services, up 381 or 80.4 percent. Construction had the second highest increase in claims, up 342 or 11.9 percent, followed by information (164, 12.8 percent) and health care and social assistance (147, 6.4 percent).

Among the states, California recorded the highest number of mass layoff initial claims, 377,413, in 2011. Pennsylvania ranked second with 124,838, followed by New York (119,398) and Florida (79,766). Twenty-nine states experienced over-the-year decreases in total initial claims for the year, led by California (-42,396), Illinois (-19,191), and Florida (-9,010). One state, South Dakota, experienced no change in its initial claims count, while twenty states and the District of Columbia had increases in annual claims from 2010 to 2011, led by North Carolina (22,393) and Pennsylvania (12,270). In three of these states, Arkansas, Nebraska, and North Carolina, initial claims reached a series high in 2011.

Technical Note

The Mass Layoff Statistics (MLS) program is a federal-state program that uses a standardized automated approach to identifying, describing, and tracking the effects of major job cutbacks, using data from each state's unemployment insurance database. Each month, states report on employers which have at least 50 initial claims filed against them during a consecutive 5-week period. These employers then are contacted by the state agency to determine whether these separations lasted 31 days or longer, and, if so, other information concerning the layoff is collected. States report on layoffs lasting more than 1 month on a quarterly basis.

A given month contains an aggregation of the weekly unemployment insurance claims filings for the Sunday through Saturday weeks in that month. All weeks are included for the particular month, except if the first day of the month falls on Saturday. In this case, the week is included in the prior month's tabulations. This means that some months will contain 4 weeks and others, 5 weeks. The number of weeks in a given month may be different from year to year, and the number of weeks in a year may vary. Therefore, analysis of over-the-month and over-the-year change in not seasonally adjusted series should take this calendar effect into consideration.

The MLS program resumed operations in April 1995 after it had been terminated in November 1992 due to lack of funding. Prior to April 1995, monthly layoff statistics were not available.

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For personal assistance or further information on mass layoff data, as well as other Bureau products, contact the Southeast Information Office at (404) 893-4222 from 9:00a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET.

Definitions

Employer. Employers in the MLS program include those covered by state unemployment insurance laws. Information on employers is obtained from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) program, which is administered by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Industry. Employers are classified according to the 2007 version of the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). For temporary help and professional employer organization industries, monthly MLS-related statistics generally reflect layoffs related to underlying client companies in other industries. An individual layoff action at a client company can be small, but when initial claimants associated with many such layoffs are assigned to a temporary help or professional employer organization firm, a mass layoff event may trigger.

Initial claimant. A person who files any notice of unemployment to initiate a request either for a determination of entitlement to and eligibility for compensation, or for a subsequent period of unemployment within a benefit year or period of eligibility.

Mass layoff event. Fifty or more initial claims for unemployment insurance benefits filed against an employer during a 5-week period, regardless of duration.