April 2002 — 2002-05-30

Employers initiated 1,507 mass layoff actions in April 2002, as measured by new filings for unemployment insurance benefits during the month, according to the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics. Each action involved at least 50 persons from a single establishment, and the number of workers involved totaled 165,861. (See table 1.) Compared with April 2001, the number of initial claims declined by 6 percent, while the number of layoff events increased by 4 percent. This was the third consecutive month of over- the-year declines in initial claims due to mass layoffs. However, because of high levels in January 2002, the total number of events and initial claims was higher in January-April 2002 than in January-April 2001. The monthly data series in this release cover mass layoffs of 50 or more workers beginning in a given month, regardless of the duration of the layoffs.