Mass Layoffs In July 2002 — 2002-08-22

Employers initiated 2,041 mass layoff actions in July 2002, as mea- sured 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 245,457. (See table 1.) A year earlier, in July 2001, there were 2,117 mass layoff events involving 273,807 workers. From January through July 2002, the total number of initial claims, at 1,317,394, was lower than January-July 2001 (1,407,980), while the number of events, at 11,843, was somewhat higher (11,658). 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.