Extended mass layoffs and the 9/11 attacks

During 2001 and 2002, employers reported 507 extended mass layoff events that were related either directly or indirectly to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The layoffs involved 145,844 workers in 34 States.

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Forty-nine percent of these layoffs and fifty-four percent of the separations occurred in just five States—California, Washington, Nevada, Illinois, and New York.

Among those laid off because of the terrorist attacks, 33 percent, or 47,794 workers, had been employed in the scheduled air transportation industry. An additional 21 percent, or 30,073 workers, had been employed in hotels and motels.

Sixty-five percent of the employers citing the events of September 11 as a secondary cause of layoff indicated a nonseasonal lack of demand for product or services (slack work) as the primary reason for the layoff, accounting for 60 percent of separations.

These data are from the Mass Layoff Statistics program. For more information, see, "Extended Mass Layoffs in 2002," BLS report 971, August 2003 (PDF). An extended mass layoff event is defined as fifty or more initial claims for unemployment insurance benefits from an establishment during a 5-week period, with at least 50 workers separated for more than 30 days. Note: 2002 data for Illinois are not shown because they do not meet BLS or State agency disclosure standards; 2002 data for Nevada equal zero.

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