Employers in Texas took 650 mass layoff actions in 2011 that resulted in the separation of 68,500 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 Stanley W. Suchman noted that the number of claims in 2011 had dropped by 5,045 over the year and was the fifth-lowest on record since the annual series began in 1996.

Industry distribution

Of all the industry sectors in Texas, construction experienced the most mass layoff events in 2011 with 157. (See table 1.) This sector also had the largest number of initial claimants at 15,143, or 22.1 percent of the state’s total. Although the number of mass layoff events in construction in 2011 had declined slightly over the year, the number of claimants rose to the second-highest level in the series history. Administrative and waste services ranked second in both the number of mass layoff events and unemployment insurance claims in 2011, at 114 and 10,064, respectively. The manufacturing sector was third with 77 layoff events and 9,446 initial claimants. Together, these three industry sectors accounted for slightly more than 50 percent of all initial claims in the state. (See chart 1.) Two other sectors experienced mass layoff-related initial claims totaling 5,000 or more in 2011: retail trade (6,620) and professional and technical services (5,979).

Accommodation and food services registered the largest decline in mass layoff initial claimants, falling by 1,120 to 4,327 in 2011; retail trade (-852) and manufacturing (-776) followed. Three other sectors finished 2011 with at least 600 fewer initial claimants than in 2010: mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction; wholesale trade; and information. On a percentage basis, mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction experienced the largest decrease in annual claims, down 66.2 percent, followed by wholesale trade (-47.4 percent), other services (-45.9 percent).

In contrast, several sectors in Texas registered a rise in initial claims in 2011, but only one saw a numeric increase exceeding 300. Local government reached a series high of 3,210, with the addition of 1,168 claimants over the year, an increase of 57.2 percent. This percentage gain came on the heels of a 47.5 percent increase in 2010. Among the other sectors with an increase in claimants, state government was up 27.6 percent and health care and social assistance, 11.1 percent.

The number of initial claimants in the construction sector showed little overall change from 2010 to 2011, but its subsector components registered notable, but offsetting, shifts. There were 1,319 fewer claimants in the construction of buildings while 1,303 claimants were added in heavy and civil engineering construction. Record numbers of initial claimants were recorded in heavy and civil engineering construction (5,824) and specialty trade contractors (5,305) in 2011.

Among the states, California recorded the largest number of initial claims during 2011 at 377,413. Pennsylvania (124,838) ranked second, followed by New York (119,398), and Florida (79,766). Twenty-nine states experienced over-the-year declines in mass layoff-related initial claims, while 20 states and the District of Columbia registered increases. In South Dakota, claims were unchanged. Among the states recording decreases in initial claims, the largest declines occurred in California (-42,396) and Illinois (-19,191), with the remaining states registering decreases of less than 10,000. North Carolina registered the largest increase (22,393) and three states (Arkansas, Nebraska, and North Carolina) reported record highs for the mass layoff initial claims series.

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.

For personal assistance or further information on the Mass Layoff Statistics program, as well as other Bureau products, contact the Southwest Information Office at (972) 850-4800 from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. CT. Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone: (202) 691-5200; Federal Relay Service: (800) 877-8339.

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.

Last Modified Date: March 5, 2012