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August 2006
In July, employers took 1,125 mass layoff actions, seasonally adjusted, as measured by new filings for unemployment insurance benefits during the month, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reported August 23. Each action involved at least 50 persons from a single establishment, and the number of workers involved totaled 114,895, on a seasonally adjusted basis. The number of layoff events increased by 28; the number of associated initial claims decreased by 4,767 from June. In the manufacturing sector, 363 mass layoff events were reported during July, seasonally adjusted, resulting in 47,287 initial claims. Both the number of events and initial claims in manufacturing were higher than a month earlier.
In July, the national unemployment rate was 4.8 percent, seasonally adjusted, up from 4.6 percent in June and down from 5.0 percent in July 2005. Total non-farm payroll employment, seasonally adjusted, increased by 113,000 over the month and by about 1.7 million over the year.
The 10 industries reporting the highest number of mass layoff initial claims, not seasonally adjusted, had 61,660 claims in July, 37 percent of the total. The two industries with the highest number of initial claims were automobile manufacturing with 16,796 and temporary help services with 11,057. Together, these two industries accounted for 17 percent of all initial claims in July.
The manufacturing sector accounted for 43 percent of all mass layoff events and 58 percent of all initial claims filed in July, little changed from a year earlier. In July 2006, the number of manufacturing claimants was highest in transportation equipment manufacturing (51,048, mostly automotive-related), followed by plastics and rubber products manufacturing (6,842).
Among the four census regions, the highest number of initial claims in July due to mass layoffs was in the Midwest, 86,786. Transportation equipment manufacturing accounted for 50 percent of all mass layoff initial claims in that region during the month. The West had the second-largest number of initial claims, 32,162, followed by the South with 30,866 and the Northeast with 17,043.
The number of initial claimants in mass layoffs decreased over the year in all four of the regions. The largest decrease was in the Midwest (-27,372), followed by the West (-19,943), the Northeast (-15,915) and the South (-14,129). All nine geographic divisions had over-the-year decreases in the number of initial claims associated with mass layoffs, with the largest decreases in the East North Central (-17,198) and Pacific (-16,431) divisions.
Among the states, Michigan recorded the highest number of initial claims filed due to mass layoff events in July (41,722), followed by California (26,385), Ohio (10,108), Indiana (10,104) and Wisconsin (7,894). These five states accounted for 52 percent of all mass layoff events and 58 percent of all initial claims for unemployment insurance.
California had the largest over-the-year decrease in the number of initial claims (-15,356). Ohio had the next largest decrease in initial claims (-15,198), followed by New York (-7,299). The largest over-the-year increase in claims occurred in Michigan (+7,161), largely due to layoffs in transportation equipment manufacturing.
From January to July, California reported 187,714 mass layoff initial claims, 22 percent of the national total. The states with the next largest number of claims over this period were Michigan (82,708), Pennsylvania (49,964), Ohio (47,507) and New York (47,246).
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