Mass Layoffs In September 2003 — 2003-10-23

Employers initiated 868 mass layoff actions in September 2003, as measured by new filings for unemployment insurance benefits during the month, according to data from the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics. Each action involved at least 50 persons from a sin- gle establishment, and the number of workers involved totaled 82,647. (See table 1.) With fewer layoffs in long distance freight trucking, temporary help services, and department stores compared with September 2002, the number of layoff events and the number of initial claims were down sharply, falling to their lowest levels for September since 1999. From January through September 2003, the total number of events, at 14,073, and the number of initial claims, at 1,399,510, were lower than the January-September period a year ago. 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.