Layoff Data

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There are two websites I always visit when researching layoff information. The first is JWT Inside, which offers an easy to search Layoff Database. This tool includes a variety of query options. The researcher can search by week or keyword. The weekly report lists the various companies, locations, affected workforce, news source, and date of the layoffs for that particular week.

Refinement by industry, metropolitan area (includes Canada), headcount, or date range is available. These results first provide a list of the company, date, and industry. Selection of a particular company will then take the user to the news story. It appears that the database goes back to the late 1990’s.

The next stop is, of course, the Bureau of Labor Statistics “Mass Layoff Statistics.” The main webpage provides instant statistics on the right hand side of page (with an RSS feed). The page also offers links to the various databases to query and tables. Like many BLS tools, these databases are very dynamic and provide an extensive amount of information. The Mass Layoff page includes a link to publications and reports (archived back to 1999). Probably the best place to start is the “overview” page to get a better understanding of all the information found on the site.