November 1999 — 2000-02-01

In November 1999, there were 1,336 mass layoff actions by employers 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 single establishment, and the number of workers involved totaled 139,508. Both the number of layoff events and the number of initial claimants for unemployment insurance were lower this November than in November 1998. The total of layoff events from January through November 1999, at 13,354, and the total number of initial claimants, at 1,530,379, were lower than in January-November 1998 (14,132 and 1,581,602, respectively). (See table 1.) 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.