US mass layoff statistics, month by month, 1988–2026

How many mass layoffs and plant closings happened in the United States last month? The Bureau of Labor Statistics used to answer that every month; its Mass Layoff Statistics program was eliminated on 30 September 2013 and never replaced. This page counts every WARN Act notice covering 50 or more workers — the Act’s own mass-layoff line — from 48 state portals, national and by state, and rebuilds the count every morning. 36,791 events and 6,410,241 workers since 1988-11.

142mass-layoff events in Jul 2026latest complete month
22,737workers in those Jul 2026 eventsas published by the states
2,204events, last 12 complete monthsprior 12 months: 1,997 (coverage varies by year)
455months on file1988-11 to 2026-09

Download the monthly series (CSV, free) By state, month by month (CSV)

Mass-layoff and plant-closing events per month, Aug 2023–Jul 2026142 eventsAug 2023Jul 2026
Events of 50 or more workers, by notice month, last 36 complete months. For scale, the largest month on file is Apr 2020: 541,752 workers in 2,888 events (see the yearly chart). · Source: Official state WARN Act listings, normalized; events with 50+ affected workers · as of 2026-09-25
Read this before comparing with the old BLS numbers. BLS MLS counted establishments with 50+ unemployment-insurance claims in five weeks; this series counts WARN notices with 50+ affected workers, by notice month. It is a successor in purpose, not a continuation of the official series, and the two cannot be spliced. Where BLS relied on claims data, this relies on what 48 state agencies publish — and on nothing else.
Workers in mass-layoff and plant-closing events per year, 1989–2025370,824 workers19892025
Complete calendar years only. 2020 is the peak: 1,927,179 workers in 9,591 events. Early years reflect the few states that publish a deep archive, not a quieter economy. · Source: Official state WARN Act listings, normalized; events with 50+ affected workers · as of 2026-09-25
California525 eventsTexas131 eventsNew Jersey124 eventsFlorida121 eventsNew York112 eventsWashington109 eventsIllinois97 eventsGeorgia78 eventsMaryland69 eventsPennsylvania69 eventsMassachusetts68 eventsNorth Carolina63 eventsOhio58 eventsTennessee57 eventsVirginia56 events
Top 15 states by events in the last 12 complete months (Aug 2025–Jul 2026); 44 states reported at least one event in that window. · Source: Official state WARN Act listings, normalized; events with 50+ affected workers · as of 2026-09-25

Last 14 months

Closure / layoff is the states’ own notice-type text where it is unambiguous; unclassified is everything else, reported rather than guessed (10,137 closure · 11,307 layoff · 15,081 unclassified across all complete months). Shaded months are still filling and are kept out of every chart.

MonthEventsWorkersClosuresLayoffsUnclassifiedStates
2026-09 (still filling)11019,66931473222
2026-08 (still filling)15625,97447505931
2026-0714222,73740465629
2026-0616020,58345496629
2026-0517947,45952537431
2026-0422133,510695210034
2026-0318623,78667477234
2026-0221529,56969509633
2026-0122135,44886577835
2025-1211515,01540314427
2025-1114125,77138426128
2025-1025747,90671978932
2025-0920033,08757598434
2025-0816724,43152645128

By year

YearEventsWorkers
2026 (7 complete months)1,324213,092
20252,180370,824
20241,959305,733
20231,913307,067
20221,122165,475
20211,116175,744
20209,5911,927,179
20191,721266,989
20181,670240,302
20171,370204,209
20161,405213,950
20151,358224,176
2014909152,627
2013658111,476
2012703112,343
2011702100,260
2010618108,954
2009988168,087
2008610120,069
200737773,147
200637460,077
200531260,050
200439971,542
200336468,749
200235975,316
2001494101,763
200032360,988
199927345,091
199818461,822
199711616,143
199615125,935
199515926,799
199410617,462
199313420,803
199211021,198
199113726,839
199014722,708
19898313,931
1988 (2 complete months)65,679
Need the events behind these counts? Every notice is in the free dataset — employer, city, headcount, dates, source link — back to 1988, CSV + JSON, CC BY 4.0, rebuilt daily. Download it → Want to be told when a specific employer or state files? WARN Watch is $49/year.

FAQ

Is this a continuation of the BLS Mass Layoff Statistics (MLS) series?

No, and it must not be spliced onto it. BLS MLS counted establishments with 50 or more initial unemployment-insurance claims filed against them in a five-week period, from 1995 until the program was eliminated on 30 September 2013 (final release 21 June 2013, May 2013 data). This series counts WARN Act notices covering 50 or more workers, by the month the notice was filed. Same question — how many mass-layoff and plant-closing events happened this month — different measurement. Treat it as a successor in purpose.

What counts as one event?

One WARN notice affecting 50 or more workers, as published by the state agency, keyed to the month of the notice date (effective date if the notice date is missing). A company filing in three states is three events. Notices under 50 workers are excluded here but remain in the full free dataset.

Why are so many events 'unclassified' rather than closure or layoff?

Because the states' own notice-type field is free text — hundreds of distinct values across the agencies, including blanks and codes with no legend. We classify only unambiguous text and report the rest as unclassified instead of guessing. The events and workers columns are unaffected and are the ones to rely on.

Why are the last two months marked 'still filling'?

States publish in batches, some weeks behind. The two most recent months are flagged is_partial in the data and excluded from every chart on this page; they are shown in the table so you can watch them fill in.

How do I download the series?

Two CSVs, CC BY 4.0, no login: a national monthly file and a state-by-month file. They are in the GitHub repository under data/ and on Hugging Face, and both are regenerated by the same daily pipeline that builds this page, so the numbers here always match the files.

Can I cite these numbers?

Yes — credit “WARN Feed” and link this page. This build is dated 2026-09-25. Because states amend and re-issue notices, a month's count can change slightly after first publication; cite the build date.