Extended Mass Layoffs (Quarterly) News Release — 2009-02-13

Employers initiated 3,140 mass layoff events in the fourth quarter of 2008 that resulted in the separation of 508,859 workers from their jobs for at least 31 days, according to preliminary figures released by the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics. Extended mass layoff events and separations reached their highest levels in pro- gram history (with data available back to 1995). The total number of layoff events in the fourth quarter 2008 was 1,326 higher than the same period a year earlier, and the number of associated separations increased by 207,267 over the year. (See table A.) The construction and manufacturing industries experienced record highs in both the num- ber of layoff events and separations for any quarter in program history. Separations due to business demand reasons more than doubled over the year to 207,609, with those related specifically to slack work/insuf- ficient demand more than tripling to 152,279.