Mass Layoffs in Indiana - 2010 Annual Totals

Employers in Indiana took 353 mass layoff actions in 2010 that resulted in the separation of 42,895 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 Charlene Peiffer pointed out that the number of claims in the State dropped by 41,660 or 49.3 percent from 84,555 in 2009, when total claims had reached a high for the series which dates back to 1996 on an annual basis.

Industry distribution

Of all the industry sectors in Indiana, manufacturing experienced the most mass layoff events in 2010 with 167. (See table 1.) This sector also had the largest number of initial claimants at 24,295, accounting for 56.6 percent of the State’s total. (See chart 1.) Still, the number of claimants in manufacturing in 2010 was the lowest in the history of the series. Construction had the second-highest mass layoff count, 50, and the second-highest associated claims for unemployment insurance with 5,196. Administrative and waste services ranked third for both measures with 44 events and 4,473 claimants. Five additional sectors had between 1,000 and 2,000 claimants, including retail trade, and transportation and warehousing.

Manufacturing also had the largest over-the-year decrease in mass layoff-related initial claims in 2010 with 35,474, more than offsetting the increase of 2,088 in the previous year. No other sector had a decline in claimants above 2,000, though four had more than 1,000, with the largest occurring in retail trade, down 1,633.(See table A.) The decline in claims in retail trade almost offset the increase in 2009; even so, the number of initial claims that occurred in 2010 was still the second highest on record for the 15 years data are available. On a percentage basis, manufacturing experienced the largest decrease in annual claims from 2009 to 2010 (-59.4 percent), followed by State government (-58.5 percent), and retail trade (-50.3 percent).

Table A. Sectors with at least 1,000 fewer mass layoff initial claims in 2010, Indiana

Sector	Net change
	2008-09	2009-10
Manufacturing	2,088	-35,474
Retail trade	1,651	-1,633
Administrative and waste services	-693	-1,142
Construction	-360	-1,095
Transportation and warehousing	535	-1,076

In contrast to the numerous industry sectors posting declines in initial claims in 2010, two reported an increase in the number of claims associated with mass layoff events—local government, up 525 or 91.6 percent, and health care and social assistance, up 477 or 49.7 percent. Both local government and health care and social assistance claims reached their highest annual totals since 1996, the first year for which annual data are available.

Among the states, California recorded the greatest number of initial claims during 2010, 419,809. New York ranked second, followed by Pennsylvania (112,568) and Illinois (91,277). Forty-eight states and the District of Columbia experienced over-the-year declines in total initial claims for the year. In seven of these states (Alaska, Arizona, Connecticut, Montana, New Mexico, New York, and Utah), the number of claimants decreased to the second-highest level on record. The largest declines in claims occurred in California (-112,219) and Illinois (-102,218). The two states posting increases in annual claims, Mississippi and Wyoming, had 1,294 and 101 additional claims, respectively.

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 Mass Layoff Statistics, as well as other Bureau products, contact the Midwest Information Office at (312) 353-1880 from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. ET. 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.

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.

Table 1. Mass layoff events and initial claimants for unemployment insurance, Indiana State, selected sectors, annual totals

Industry	Mass layoff events				Initial claims for unemployment insurance
	2007	2008	2009	2010	2007	2008	2009	2010
Total, all industries (1)	375	680	730	353	47,923	80,027	84,555	42,895
Total private	369	672	713	337	47,347	79,370	83,034	41,258
Total private nonfarm	369	671	712	337	47,347	79,306	82,942	41,258
Construction	48	76	63	50	4,521	6,651	6,291	5,196
Construction of buildings	17	27	20	17	1,555	2,363	1,776	1,514
Heavy and civil engineering construction	21	23	26	21	2,163	2,069	2,853	2,577
Specialty trade contractors	10	26	17	12	803	2,219	1,662	1,105
Manufacturing	237	436	470	167	35,156	57,681	59,769	24,295
Food	(3)(R)	4	(3)(R)	7	(3)(R)	443	(3)(R)	1,613
Wood products	17	27	18	8	1,490	2,363	1,581	569
Printing and related support activities	5	6	9	(3)(R)	434	761	859	(3)(R)
Petroleum and coal products	3	4	5	(3)	266	324	395	(3)
Chemicals	(3)	(3)(R)	6	(3)(R)	(3)	(3)(R)	420	(3)(R)
Plastics and rubber products (2)	11	29	26	(3)	1,293	2,977	2,367	(3)
Nonmetallic mineral products	12	11	17	6	1,211	872	1,580	531
Primary metals	16	36	51	7	1,842	3,470	5,169	783
Fabricated metal products	17	39	50	9	1,597	3,077	3,985	674
Machinery (2)	9	17	33	9	1,827	2,159	5,295	852
Computer and electronic products	10	10	18	6	854	780	1,520	615
Electrical equipment and appliances	3	9	7	7	853	2,833	2,068	1,725
Transportation equipment (2)	106	198	189	75	20,285	33,379	29,875	13,291
Furniture and related products (2)	13	22	19	15	1,525	2,209	2,507	2,071
Miscellaneous manufacturing (2)	7	13	12	(3)	859	1,017	1,139	(3)
Wholesale trade	(3)	(3)(R)	12	(3)	(3)	(3)(R)	1,005	(3)
Merchant wholesalers durable goods	-	(3)(R)	9	-	-	(3)(R)	632	-
Retail trade	10	13	28	15	848	1,595	3,246	1,613
General merchandise stores	6	5	14	7	567	859	2,061	992
Transportation and warehousing	14	20	26	17	1,260	2,105	2,640	1,564
Truck transportation	4	12	9	(3)(R)	265	827	752	(3)(R)
Transit and ground passenger transportation	6	5	8	9	656	689	963	623
Professional and technical services (2)	(3)(R)	6	7	(3)(R)	(3)(R)	473	714	(3)(R)
Administrative and waste services (2)	35	69	64	44	3,087	6,308	5,615	4,473
Health care and social assistance	6	10	13	15	587	1,005	960	1,437
Nursing and residential care facilities	-	(3)(R)	(3)(R)	6	-	(3)(R)	(3)(R)	690
Social assistance	5	6	8	8	467	526	599	636
Accommodation and food services	9	14	13	12	883	1,314	1,315	1,074
Food services and drinking places	9	14	13	12	883	1,314	1,315	1,074
Government	6	8	17	16	576	657	1,521	1,637
Federal	1	1	3	3	94	85	283	263
State	1	2	8	4	135	224	665	276
Local	4	5	6	9	347	348	573	1,098
Footnotes: (1) Total includes all industries including those not listed in the table. (2) Data beginning in 2008 are not strictly comparable to prior years due to a change in NAICS versions. (3) Data do not meet BLS or state agency disclosure standards. (R) Revised
NOTE: Dash represents zero.

 

Last Modified Date: July 6, 2011