TED: The Editor's Desk

October 23, 2008 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Mass layoff actions in September 2008

In September, employers took 2,269 mass layoff actions, seasonally adjusted, as measured by new filings for unemployment insurance benefits during the month. The number of mass layoff events this September increased by 497 from the prior month.

Mass layoff events, seasonally adjusted, January 2001-September 2008
[Chart data—TXT]

Layoff events reached their highest level since September 2001, a month that experienced substantial layoff activity due to the September 11 attacks. The effects of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike contributed to the higher September 2008 layoff activity.

Each mass layoff action involved at least 50 persons from a single employer; in September 2008, the number of workers involved totaled 235,681. Mass layoff initial claims reached their highest level since September 2005, which was a month with high layoff activity due to Hurricane Katrina.

From January through September 2008, the total number of events, at 14,811, and initial claims, at 1,510,446, were the highest for the January-September period since 2003 and 2002, respectively.

These data are from the Mass Layoff Statistics program and are seasonally adjusted. To learn more, see "Mass Layoffs in September 2008," (PDF) (HTML) news release USDL 08-1497.

Of interest

Spotlight on Statistics: The Recession of 2007–2009

The most recent recession in the United States began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009, though many of the statistics that describe the U.S. economy have yet to return to their pre-recession values. In this Spotlight, we present BLS data that compare the recent recession to previous recessions. Read more »