Back in the February of 2008, I noted in the Recession and mass layoffs that if the mass layoffs increase by a lot then it will be a sign of a recession. Since then the mass layoff events in the US have really gone up by a lot, not surprisingly the US in a deep recession right now. It will be very important to keep an eye on this number as we try to recover from this recession because if the economy starts to improve, the mass layoff number should come down or at least stabilize a little.
The chart below shows the mass layoffs in the United States since March 2005. The data table below lists the data used to create the chart.
| Month | Mass layoff events |
| Mar-05 | 1,204 |
| Apr-05 | 1,244 |
| May-05 | 1,264 |
| Jun-05 | 1,196 |
| Jul-05 | 1,241 |
| Aug-05 | 1,143 |
| Sep-05 | 2,250 |
| Oct-05 | 1,109 |
| Nov-05 | 1,162 |
| Dec-05 | 1,263 |
| Jan-06 | 1,112 |
| Feb-06 | 960 |
| Mar-06 | 1,078 |
| Apr-06 | 1,198 |
| May-06 | 1,132 |
| Jun-06 | 1,156 |
| Jul-06 | 1,204 |
| Aug-06 | 1,278 |
| Sep-06 | 1,167 |
| Oct-06 | 1,195 |
| Nov-06 | 1,209 |
| Dec-06 | 1,201 |
| Jan-07 | 1,261 |
| Feb-07 | 1,240 |
| Mar-07 | 1,261 |
| Apr-07 | 1,281 |
| May-07 | 1,200 |
| Jun-07 | 1,256 |
| Jul-07 | 1,288 |
| Aug-07 | 1,262 |
| Sep-07 | 1,279 |
| Oct-07 | 1,346 |
| Nov-07 | 1,352 |
| Dec-07 | 1,469 |
| Jan-08 | 1,476 |
| Feb-08 | 1,669 |
| Mar-08 | 1,585 |
| Apr-08 | 1,344 |
| May-08 | 1,701 |
| Jun-08 | 1,717 |
| Jul-08 | 1,535 |
| Aug-08 | 1,887 |
| Sep-08 | 2,290 |
| Oct-08 | 2,204 |
| Nov-08 | 2,333 |
| Dec-08 | 2,275 |
| Jan-09 | 2,227 |
| Feb-09 | 2,769 |
Datasource: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/mmls.nr0.htm
1 comment:
I understand that the Federal, State, and Local government needs to reduce their labor force in order to make budget cuts.
The local government needs to make immediate cuts to remain solvent. The State government has a more intermediate term. And the Federal government can make labor cuts over a longer 9 - 18 month period.
In order to to keep people off the unemployment rolls, an orderly lay-off program should have been enacted. More specifically:
1. Identify the amount of people to lay-off
2. Define the time line to lay-off people
3. Inform the employee when they will be laid-off. People could then search for a new job while still employed.
4. Some people will find new jobs prior to the lay-off date. This will keep people off the unemployment rolls.
5. This orderly lay-off would provide markets certainty as they would be able to know exactly how many Government employees would be introduced into the labor market each month.
Thanks for the blog post.
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