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Mass Layoff Statistics

County Level Initial Claimants in Extended Mass Layoffs by Demographic Group

Background

The Mass Layoff Statistics (MLS) program has maintained a complete unpublished dataset on initial claimants for Unemployment Insurance (UI) associated with extended mass layoffs at the county level of geography beginning with the second quarter of 1995. This dataset was available to users by request, but was not included in monthly, quarterly, or annual publications. To produce these substate data, the county of residence was obtained for nearly all initial claimants associated with extended mass layoffs in addition to demographic information including age, gender, and race/ethnicity. One table containing historical, residency-based claimant data on an annual basis, spanning the years of 1995 through 2012, is being provided for the first time on the BLS website. No future updates or revisions will be made to this file.

Important Notes

Users of this information should note that all data are subjected to screening procedures that are in accordance with BLS policy of protecting the confidentiality interests of survey respondents (see the next paragraph). However, the residency based claimant data are not impacted as much by the nondisclosure screening rules as the worksite location based data. Furthermore, the residency based claimant data are more comparable to the official county unemployment estimates from the Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) program. LAUS concepts and definitions conform to the Current Population Survey’s (CPS), which produces the official unemployment data for the nation, and is based on the survey respondent’s location of residence.

Due to BLS guidelines that protect the confidentiality interests of the respondents, it is important for users of this information to note that as the geographic area becomes more granular, data are much more likely to be subject to confidentiality constraints that may result in nondisclosure or simply not be available. Additionally, the MLS program pledges to use information provided by employers for statistical purposes only, and does not report the names of establishments experiencing mass layoffs. For more information on these guidelines please see Confidentiality of Data Collected by BLS for Statistical Purposes.



 

Last Modified Date: June 28, 2012