Among the 50 states and the District of Columbia, the largest number of worker separations occurred in California (37,864), followed by Illinois (36,232) and Florida (16,463). These three states accounted for 29 percent of total layoff events and 38 percent of the separations during the fourth quarter of 2004. They were followed by Minnesota (12,433), New York (11,525), Pennsylvania (11,182), Michigan (10,912), and Ohio (10,740). After excluding the substantial impact of seasonal work, Illinois reported the most laid-off workers (17,429), largely due to layoffs in administrative and support services.
Over the year, California reported the greatest decrease in workers laid off during the fourth quarter (-26,539), followed by Wisconsin (-13,063), Michigan (-8,740), and Ohio (-7,354). The largest increases occurred in Tennessee (+1,530) and Pennsylvania (+1,455).
Fifty-seven percent of events and 53 percent of separations occurred in metropolitan areas in the fourth quarter of 2004, compared to 51 percent of events and 47 percent of separations during the fourth quarter of 2003. Among the 331 metropolitan areas, Chicago, Ill., reported the highest number of separations, 17,159. Next were Detroit, Mich., with 5,060 separations, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn.-Wis., with 4,794, and Los Angeles-Long Beach, Calif., with 4,649. Employers located in nonmetropolitan areas separated 32,774 workers in mass layoffs, down from 42,481 workers in the fourth quarter of 2003.
Review of 2004
For all of 2004, employers reported 4,879 extended mass layoff actions, affecting 956,327 workers. These totals were down from 6,181 events and 1,216,886 separations in 2003. Compared with their peak levels in 2001,the number of events was down by 34 percent and the number of separations was down by 37 percent. The annual average national unemployment rate decreased from 6.0 percent in 2003 to 5.5 percent in 2004, while private nonfarm payroll employment increased by 1.3 percent, or 1,447,000 jobs.Fifteen percent of extended events in 2004 were permanent closures, accounting for 157,512 worker separations. When compared with 2003, the number of permanent closures declined by 20 percent, resulting in 53,391 fewer separations. Since 2001, when permanent closures were at their highest, the number of closures was down by 41 percent and the number of associated separations was down by 58 percent. During 2004, permanent closures were most numerous in the manufacturing sector, primarily in food manufacturing. Reorganization within the company was most often cited as the reason for closures in manufacturing during 2004, accounting for 34 percent of the total.
In 2004, employers expected a recall in 51 percent of the mass layoff actions, higher than a year earlier when employers expected a recall in 43 percent of events. In 6 of the past 9 years, a recall had been expected in about 50 percent of all layoff events. Employers in arts, entertainment, and recreation (82 percent), construction (76 percent), mining (76 percent), and health care and social assistance (70 percent), were more likely to have some type of recall than were those in other industries. Employers in the finance and insurance sector had the lowest percentage of recall expectation (5 percent), followed by those in information (12 percent). Manufacturing industries accounted for 34 percent of events and 27 percent of separations for which the employer did not expect to have a recall. These occurred primarily in transportation equipment, computer and electronic products, and food manufacturing.
Industry.
Manufacturing had the largest share of extended events and separations in 2004--29 and 25 percent, respectively. However, these were the smallest shares on record for this industry group. Since reaching a peak in 2001, the number of manufacturing events has declined by 56 percent and the number of separations has declined by 62 percent. In 2004, within manufacturing, separations were most numerous in food manufacturing (61,459), transportation equipment (36,759), and computer and electronic products (14,867). Compared with 2003, 17 of the 21 manufacturing subgroups had declines in the number of separations, with the largest occurring in computer and electronic products (-27,503) and transportation equipment (-21,969). Plastics and rubber products manufacturing had the largest increase (+1,265).
