September 24, 2009 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)
Mass layoff initial claims, August 2009
Employers took 2,690 mass layoff actions in August that resulted in the separation of 259,307 workers, seasonally adjusted, as measured by new filings for unemployment insurance benefits during the month.
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The number of mass layoff initial claims increased by 52,516 in August. From August 2008 through August 2009, the number of mass layoff initial claims increased by 70,356.
The year-to-date total of mass layoff initial claims for unemployment insurance benefits in August was 2,162,202. This is a program high for a year-to-date total through August of any year.
During the 21 months from December 2007 through August 2009, the total number of mass layoff initial claims filed was 4,556,636. (December 2007 was the start of the current recession.)
These data are from the Mass Layoff Statistics program and are seasonally adjusted. To learn more, see "Mass Layoffs – August 2009" (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL 09-1156.
Of interest
Spotlight on Statistics: National Hispanic Heritage Month
In this Spotlight, we take a look at the Hispanic labor force—including labor force participation, employment and unemployment, educational attainment, geographic location, country of birth, earnings, consumer expenditures, time use, workplace injuries, and employment projections.
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