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 45 state portals, national and by state, and rebuilds the count every morning. 29,810 events and 5,210,663 workers since 1988-11.

143mass-layoff events in Jul 2026latest complete month
22,764workers in those Jul 2026 eventsas published by the states
2,069events, last 12 complete monthsprior 12 months: 1,760 (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 2026143 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: 443,575 workers in 2,355 events (see the yearly chart). · Source: Official state WARN Act listings, normalized; events with 50+ affected workers · as of 2026-09-09
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 45 state agencies publish — and on nothing else.
Workers in mass-layoff and plant-closing events per year, 1989–2025342,123 workers19892025
Complete calendar years only. 2020 is the peak: 1,521,057 workers in 7,419 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 2026-09-09
California525 eventsTexas131 eventsFlorida121 eventsWashington109 eventsNew Jersey104 eventsIllinois97 eventsGeorgia78 eventsMaryland69 eventsPennsylvania69 eventsNew York67 eventsNorth Carolina63 eventsOhio58 eventsTennessee57 eventsVirginia56 eventsMichigan47 events
Top 15 states by events in the last 12 complete months (Aug 2025–Jul 2026); 42 states reported at least one event in that window. · Source: Official state WARN Act listings, normalized; events with 50+ affected workers · as of 2026-09-09

Last 14 months

Closure / layoff is the states’ own notice-type text where it is unambiguous; unclassified is everything else, reported rather than guessed (6,589 closure · 8,682 layoff · 14,351 unclassified across all complete months). Shaded months are still filling and are kept out of every chart.

MonthEventsWorkersClosuresLayoffsUnclassifiedStates
2026-09 (still filling)334,7251015812
2026-08 (still filling)15525,68346505930
2026-0714322,76440475629
2026-0615519,98145496128
2026-0516746,50851536330
2026-0421432,81569529333
2026-0317822,81467476433
2026-0220428,21169508532
2026-0121234,54686576934
2025-1210113,76139263625
2025-1113424,87636425626
2025-1022742,57865847829
2025-0917730,54945577533
2025-0815723,54247634726

By year

YearEventsWorkers
2026 (7 complete months)1,273207,639
20251,956342,123
20241,695262,692
20231,683265,299
2022932131,925
2021953147,542
20207,4191,521,057
20191,305201,324
20181,247185,117
20171,042160,022
20161,076161,010
20151,154188,467
2014675116,278
201352690,308
201258393,171
201150167,040
201043169,688
2009666110,603
200851097,196
200729051,313
200630350,842
200526349,469
200432861,233
200327852,236
200228161,916
200138983,615
200025746,720
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 2026-09-09. Because states amend and re-issue notices, a month's count can change slightly after first publication; cite the build date.