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News Release Information

13-362-DAL
Thursday, March 07, 2013

Contacts Technical information: Media contact:
  • (972) 850-4800

Mass Layoffs in Texas – 2012 Annual Totals

Employers in Texas took 627 mass layoff actions in 2012 that resulted in the separation of 69,068 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 2012 rose slightly from the 2011 level of 68,500, but remained well below the recent recession’s peak level of 108,452 recorded in 2009.

Industry distribution

Of all the industry sectors in Texas, construction experienced the most mass layoff events in 2012 with 141. (See table 1.) This sector also had the largest number of initial claimants at 13,519, or 19.6 percent of the state’s total. Although both the number of mass layoff events and claimants in the construction sector declined in 2012, the number of claimants was still the fifth-highest in the series which extends back to 1996. Administrative and waste services ranked second in the number of mass layoff events and third in unemployment insurance claims in 2012, at 115 and 9,972, respectively. The manufacturing sector was third in layoff events at 79, but second in number of initial claimants with 11,710 in 2012. Together, these three industry sectors accounted for slightly more than 50 percent of all initial claims in the state. (See chart 1.) Three other sectors experienced mass layoff-related initial claims totaling 5,000 or more in 2012: retail trade (6,112), professional and technical services (5,684), and accommodation and food services (5,044).

Manufacturing saw the largest increase in mass layoff initial claimants, rising 2,264 in 2012. Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction followed with an increase of 1,092 initial claims; this sector posted a series low of 337 claims in 2011. On a percentage basis, mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction experienced the largest increase in claims, up 324.0 percent in 2012, after experiencing the largest percentage decrease among all sectors in 2011 (-66.2 percent). Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction was followed by other services, up 73.2 percent, and wholesale trade, up 54.6 percent. The educational services sector was the only industry to register a series high in initial claimants in 2012 (665).

Although total initial claimants in Texas rose, nearly as many industry sectors registered declines as increases in 2012. The largest decline in initial claims occurred in the local government sector where claims fell 2,017 (-62.8 percent); this sector recorded a series high in 2011 at 3,210. The construction sector experienced the second-largest decline in initial claims, falling by 1,624 in 2012, but movements differed in the construction sub-components. Declines in initial claims were recorded in heavy and civil engineering construction (-1,228) and specialty trade contractors (-581), as both industries came off series highs in 2011, but claims rose in the construction of buildings subsector (185).

Among the states, California recorded the largest number of initial claims during 2012 at 327,275. New York (141,137) ranked second, followed by Pennsylvania (106,303) and New Jersey (85,979). Thirty-six states and the District of Columbia experienced over-the-year declines in total initial claims, while 14 states registered increases. California (-50,138) registered the largest decline in initial claims, while five states registered declines ranging from 20,000 to 10,000; decreases in the remaining states were less than 10,000. New York experienced the largest increase (21,739) followed by North Carolina (19,537) and New Jersey (19,168).


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 the 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.

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, selected industries, Texas, annual totals
Industry Mass layoff events Initial claims for unemployment insurance
2009 2010 2011 2012 2009 2010 2011 2012

Total, all industries (1)

1,064 722 650 627 108,452 73,545 68,500 69,068

  Total private

1,031 688 599 608 105,289 70,315 63,880 67,046

    Agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting

6 6 8 7 623 786 771 551

      Agriculture and forestry support activities

4 4 4 (3) 446 626 532 (3)

  Total private nonfarm

1,025 682 591 601 104,666 69,529 63,109 66,495

    Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction

70 11 4 18 6,935 997 337 1,429

      Support activities for mining

66 10 4 17 6,589 928 337 1,316

    Construction

198 166 157 141 17,565 14,928 15,143 13,519

      Construction of buildings

72 49 46 45 7,172 5,333 4,014 4,199

      Heavy and civil engineering construction

68 54 50 40 5,717 4,521 5,824 4,596

      Specialty trade contractors

58 63 61 56 4,676 5,074 5,305 4,724

    Manufacturing

238 93 77 79 26,116 10,222 9,446 11,710

      Food

14 15 21 8 1,431 1,493 2,505 749

      Textile mills

5 (3) (3) (3) 1,348 (3) (3) (3)

      Apparel (2)

(3) 5 (3) (3) (3) 370 (3) (3)

      Wood products

10 10 (3) - 690 949 (3) -

      Nonmetallic mineral products

13 6 (3) 5 897 720 (3) 804

      Primary metals

13 (3) (3) (3) 1,408 (3) (3) (3)

      Fabricated metal products

31 (3) 7 8 2,324 (3) 516 588

      Machinery (2)

49 12 8 13 5,105 1,252 1,312 1,548

      Computer and electronic products

29 4 5 (3) 3,174 256 355 (3)

      Transportation equipment (2)

34 14 14 18 6,398 1,398 1,352 4,702

    Wholesale trade

28 17 10 14 2,580 1,362 716 1,107

      Merchant wholesalers, durable goods

19 11 8 11 1,871 927 583 902

      Merchant wholesalers, nondurable goods

(3) 6 (3) 3 (3) 435 (3) 205

    Retail trade

75 73 58 49 8,592 7,472 6,620 6,112

      Furniture and home furnishings stores

4 (3) (3) (3) 510 (3) (3) (3)

      Electronics and appliance stores

6 (3) (3) (3) 1,086 (3) (3) (3)

      Building material and garden supply stores

10 (3) (3) (3) 827 (3) (3) (3)

      Food and beverage stores

10 11 11 7 911 1,013 1,251 872

      Health and personal care stores

(3) 8 5 (3) (3) 581 434 (3)

      General merchandise stores

28 32 25 25 3,932 3,872 3,392 3,582

    Transportation and warehousing

45 29 21 30 4,319 3,134 2,640 3,050

      Air transportation

(3) (3) - 3 (3) (3) - 284

      Truck transportation

21 10 6 7 2,177 763 504 618

      Transit and ground passenger transportation

9 9 7 10 902 1,278 1,241 1,381

      Support activities for transportation

(3) (3) - 3 (3) (3) - 183

    Information

32 24 18 17 2,585 2,074 1,444 2,073

      Publishing industries except Internet

6 (3) (3) (3) 521 (3) (3) (3)

      Telecommunications

19 19 11 11 1,552 1,688 972 1,543

      Data processing hosting and related services

5 (3) 5 4 392 (3) 361 416

    Finance and insurance (2)

38 24 15 20 2,962 1,920 1,601 1,916

      Credit intermediation and related activities

26 15 14 13 2,221 1,229 1,497 1,365

      Insurance carriers and related activities

10 9 (3) 7 586 691 (3) 551

    Real estate and rental and leasing (2)

7 5 (3) (3) 502 419 (3) (3)

      Rental and leasing services

5 5 (3) (3) 360 419 (3) (3)

    Professional and technical services (2)

52 36 34 34 7,011 6,419 5,979 5,684

    Management of companies and enterprises

9 (3) (3) (3) 925 (3) (3) (3)

    Administrative and waste services (2)

157 119 114 115 14,303 10,520 10,064 9,772

      Administrative and support services (2)

154 119 114 115 14,078 10,520 10,064 9,772

    Educational services

(3) (3) 6 8 (3) (3) 497 665

    Health care and social assistance

24 25 32 27 3,821 2,650 2,945 2,420

      Ambulatory health care services

(3) 7 10 (3) (3) 583 826 (3)

      Hospitals

6 (3) 7 7 492 (3) 478 458

      Social assistance

13 12 14 15 1,487 1,544 1,565 1,594

    Arts entertainment and recreation

(3) 5 (3) (3) (3) 380 (3) (3)

    Accommodation and food services

37 36 31 30 5,275 5,447 4,327 5,044

      Food services and drinking places

34 34 29 30 5,040 5,313 4,174 5,044

    Other services except public administration

7 9 4 7 573 606 328 568

      Membership associations and organizations

3 3 (3) (3) 227 227 (3) (3)

  Government

33 34 51 19 3,163 3,230 4,620 2,022

    Federal

7 5 4 3 663 332 318 195

    State

13 10 13 7 1,116 856 1,092 634

    Local

13 19 34 9 1,384 2,042 3,210 1,193

(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.

Note: Dash represents zero.

 

Last Modified Date: Thursday, March 07, 2013