January's mass layoffs set record
By DIANE STAFFORD
The Kansas City Star
Employers initiated more mass layoff actions in January than in any previous January in the nine-year history of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' mass layoff record keeping.
Both the number of mass layoff actions nationally and the number of unemployment compensation claims filed as a result were higher last month than in the same month a year earlier.
Labor market analysts had expected January layoffs to increase for seasonal reasons, but this increase exceeded expectations.
The higher counts were contrary to a general downward trend over the past year for both the number of mass layoff actions — defined as those affecting at least 50 workers at a single work site — and the number of initial jobless claims resulting from the actions. The national unemployment rate stood at 5.6 percent in January, down from a cyclical peak of 6.3 percent last June.
For January 2004, there were 2,428 mass layoff actions nationally, affecting 239,454 workers. In comparison, January 2003 recorded 2,315 actions, affecting 225,430 workers.
Twenty-six of the actions last month occurred in Missouri, affecting 2,422 workers. In comparison, Missouri recorded 30 mass layoff actions in January 2003 affecting 2,351 workers.
Fourteen of last month's notices were given in Kansas, affecting 954 workers. A year earlier, the state had 15 actions affecting 1,108 workers.
Dave McDermott, regional economist in the Kansas City office of the statistics bureau, said many of the layoffs occurred in the retail sector, due to a post-holiday shopping slump, and in construction, which had weather-related slowdowns.
“A substantial number of the layoffs were in places where we expect to see them this time of year,” McDermott said, “but even some of those industries had record numbers of layoffs for a January.”
McDermott said the tide could easily turn as seasonally affected jobs open up again.
Manufacturing accounted for more than one-third of the layoffs nationally — 35 percent of the events and 37 percent of the individual unemployment claims.
Many of the manufacturing layoffs were in the transportation equipment industry. Some actions might reflect temporary layoffs when plants are on hiatus for retooling or have temporary production slowdowns.
Also of note in the January report: The government sector set a five-year record for the number of workers filing for unemployment in the month.
Another sector that reported a higher number of initial claimants because of mass layoffs was the temporary help sector.
One enduring bright note in the monthly mass layoff reports was that Wyoming continued a months-long trend of recording zero mass layoff actions in the state.
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