Department of Labor

Mass Layoff Statistics

Important Notice
On March 1, 2013, President Obama ordered into effect the across-the-board spending cuts (commonly referred to as sequestration) required by the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act, as amended. Under the order, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) must cut its current budget by more than $30 million, 5 percent of the current 2013 appropriation, by September 30, 2013. In order to help achieve these savings and protect core programs, the BLS will eliminate two programs, including Mass Layoff Statistics, and all "measuring green jobs" products. The final release of Mass Layoffs Statistics data will be the publication of the May 2013 data.

The Mass Layoff Statistics (MLS) program is a Federal-State cooperative program that uses each state's unemployment insurance (UI) data to track the effects of major job cutbacks.

A potential mass layoff event occurs when at least 50 initial claims are filed against an UI number during a consecutive 5-week period. The State MLS Unit contacts the employer by phone to determine whether at least 50 people were separated for over 30 days, and, if so, information is obtained on the total number of persons separated, the reasons for separation, and recall expectations.

If it is determined that at least 50 people were separated for over 30 days, then a potential mass layoff event becomes an extended mass layoff. Mass Layoff data are published monthly and the extended mass layoffs data are published quarterly on the Bureau of Labor Statistics MLS web site.

Monthly MLS Data for New York State (historical data: 2008 to present) (xls) (csv) (pdf)
In December 2012, there were 100 mass layoff events with 9,853 associated initial claims in New York State. The number of mass layoff events in December 2012 decreased by 17 compared to December 2011 while associated initial claims increased by 1,645. Each action involved at least 50 persons from a single employer.

Quarterly MLS Data for New York State (historical data: 2005 to present) (xls) (csv) (pdf)
In the fourth quarter 2012, employers in New York State initiated 131 mass layoff events that resulted in the separation of 19,698 workers from their jobs for at least 31 days, according to preliminary figures.

The monthly data series covers mass layoffs of 50 or more workers beginning in a given month, regardless of the duration of the layoffs. For private nonfarm establishments, information on the length of the layoff is obtained later and issued in a quarterly release that reports on mass layoffs lasting more than 30 days (referred to as “extended mass layoffs”). Because monthly figures include short-term layoffs of 30 days or less, the sum of the figures for the 3 months in a quarter will be higher than the quarterly figure for mass layoffs of more than 30 days. See Technical Notes for more detailed information.

Note:
Mouse over the graph to see the data for each quarter. To view the full data set click on the bar below each graph.