Second Quarter — 2001-08-22

In the second quarter of 2001, there were 1,911 mass layoff actions by employers that resulted in the separation of 371,708 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 April-June 2000. For the entire first half of 2001, the number of worker separations totaled 712,488, up from 513,254 during the same period in 2000. (See table A.) The completion of seasonal work accounted for 27 percent of all events and resulted in 122,615 separations. Permanent closure of worksites occurred in 16 percent of all events and affected 78,452 workers, up from 43,948 workers in the second quarter of 2000. Fewer than half of the employers having layoffs in the second quarter indicated that they anticipated having some type of recall, the smallest proportion since the series began in 1995.