The monthly grim reaper report on layoffs

By Lee Russ

Wednesday, October 25, 2006 at 04:29 PM

The *Bureau of Labor Statistics today released its report on "mass layoffs" for the month of September.  No, it isn't really getting better.

*The BLS release includes (at the end) a table of all mass layoffs from October 2002 through September 2006.

In September 2006, employers took 1,132 mass layoff actions, seasonally adjusted, as measured by new filings for unemployment insurance benefits during the month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of
Labor reported today.  Each action involved at least 50 persons from a single establishment, and the number of workers involved totaled 116,773, on a seasonally adjusted basis.  The number of layoff events decreased by 61 from the prior month, and the number of associated initial claims decreased by 11,171.  During September 2006, 381 mass layoff events were reported in the manufacturing sector, seasonally adjusted, resulting in 45,040 initial claims.  The number of events in manufacturing was higher than a month earlier, while the number of initial claims decreased.
...
The 10 industries reporting the highest number of mass layoff initial claims, not seasonally adjusted, accounted for 21,928 initial claims in
September, 25 percent of the total.  The three industries with the highest number of initial claims were temporary help services with 4,543, professional employer organizations with 2,623, and light truck and utility vehicle manufacturing with 2,532.  Together, these three industries accounted for 11 percent of all initial claims due to mass layoffs in September....

The manufacturing sector accounted for 34 percent of all mass layoff events and 45 percent of all initial claims filed in September..