Mass Layoffs In May 2002 — 2002-06-27

Employers initiated 1,726 mass layoff actions in May 2002, as measured by new filings for unemployment insurance benefits during the month, accord- ing to the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics. Each ac- tion involved at least 50 persons from a single establishment, and the number of workers involved totaled 180,007. (See table 1.) A year earlier, in May 2001, there were 1,434 mass layoff events involving 159,365 workers. The number of events and initial claims this year were the highest for the month of May since the series began in 1995. (May 2002 contained 5 weeks for pos- sible mass layoffs, compared with 4 weeks in each May of the prior 3 years.) From January through May 2002, the total number of events, at 8,222, and of initial claims, at 910,009, were higher than January-May 2001 (7,434 and 880,347, respectively).