Third Quarter — 2001-11-15

In the third quarter of 2001, there were 1,689 mass layoff actions by employers that resulted in the separation of 349,866 workers from their jobs for more than 30 days, according to preliminary figures released by the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics. Both the total number of layoff events and the number of separations were sharply higher than July-September 2000. This marks the fourth consecutive quarter of significant over-the-year increases in extended mass layoff activity. For the first three quarters of 2001, the number of worker separations totaled 1,171,572, up from 743,357 during the same period in 2000 and slightly more than the total for all of 2000 (1,170,423). (See table A.) Lack of demand for employers' products and services (slack work) accounted for 28 percent of all events and resulted in 84,194 separations. Permanent closure of worksites occurred in 18 percent of all events and affected 74,827 workers, up from 40,688 workers in the third quarter of 2000.