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Reasons for extended mass layoffs, 2009–2011

January 04, 2013

In 2011, employers initiated 6,597 extended mass layoff events that resulted in the separation of 1.1 million workers, the lowest level of separations since 2007.  

Extended mass layoff separations by reason for separation, private nonfarm sector, 2009-2011
Extended mass layoffs by reason for separation, private nonfarm sector, 2009–2011
Reason for layoff200920102011

Total

2,108,2021,257,1341,113,170

Business demand

824,834384,565366,629

Organizational changes

120,23379,78456,533

Financial issues

228,49986,63776,335

Production specific

12,8667,83016,180

Disaster/safety

3,9853,2025,046

Seasonal

409,788429,847393,087

Other/miscellaneous

507,997265,269199,360

 

Separations resulting from low business demand, organizational changes, financial issues, seasonal business decline, and other/miscellaneous reasons all continued to decline from 2009 to 2011. Within business demand, the number of workers separated because of slack work/insufficient demand decreased from 161,769 in 2010 to 94,757 in 2011, the largest decline among all economic reasons for layoff from 2010 to 2011.

Separations resulting from production specific and disaster/safety reasons increased in 2011 after declining from 2009 to 2010.

These data are from the Mass Layoff Statistics program. For more information, see “Extended Mass Layoffs in 2011” Report 1039, issued December 2012. The series on extended mass layoffs cover layoffs of at least 31-days duration that involve 50 or more individuals from a single employer filing initial claims for unemployment insurance during a consecutive 5-week period.

SUGGESTED CITATION

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, Reasons for extended mass layoffs, 2009–2011 at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2013/ted_20130104.htm (visited March 29, 2024).

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