Reason.
In 2004, seasonal work continued to be the most frequently cited reason for layoff, accounting for 33 percent of all layoff events and 34 percent of all separations. A year earlier, seasonal layoffs accounted for 26 percent of events and 27 percent of separations. The seasonal layoffs in 2004 occurred primarily in establishments engaged in food manufacturing, heavy and civil engineering construction, and in transit and ground passenger transportation.Layoff activity due to internal company restructuring occurred largely among general credit intermediation and related activities, food manufacturing, and elecommunications. Employers cited this reason in 967 events (20 percent of the total), resulting in the separation of 192,784 workers (20 percent of the total).
Movement of work.
In 2004, there were 357 extended mass layoff events that involved movement of work, either within the same company or to a different company, domestically or out of the U.S. The events involving movement of work were associated with the separation of 69,979 workers, about 11 percent of all separations resulting from nonseasonal/nonvacation mass layoff events. Sixty-two percent of events with movement of work involved the permanent closure of a worksite, affecting 48,144 workers. About two-thirds of the events and separations were in manufacturing industries, mostly in computer and electronic products and in transportation equipment. Employers citing internal company restructuring (bankruptcy, business ownership change, financial difficulty, and reorganization) accounted for over two-thirds of the movement-of-work events and separations. Among the regions, the Midwest accounted for the largest proportion of laid-off workers associated with the movement of work (34 percent), followed by the South (32 percent), the West (21 percent), and the Northeast (14 percent).As part of the 357 layoff events involving movement of work, 466 specific movement-of-work actions were taken by employers. Employers were able to provide information on specific separations (53,923 laid-off workers) associated with the movement of work component of the layoff in 375 of the 466 actions. Thus, the number of separations due to the movement of work ranges between 53,923 (separations in movement-of-work actions where the employer was able to provide specific detail) up to 69,979 (total separations in all layoff events that included movement of work) for 2004.
Of the 375 movement-of-work actions for which complete information is available, 7 in 10 relocations were to other locations within the U.S., and more than 8 in 10 involved moving work within the company. The separation of 16,073 of the 53,923 workers was associated with out-of-country relocations, accounting for 30 percent of the separations related to the movement of work and 3 percent of all separations in nonseasonal/nonvacation extended mass layoff events. In out-of-country relocations, Mexico and China were cited 52 percent of the time as the destination to which work moved. Domestic relocation of work--both within the company and to other companies--affected 35,171 workers. California and North Carolina led the list of states to which work was being moved.
Geographic distribution.
Among all private-sector nonfarm employers, those in the Midwest reported more laid-off workers in 2004 than any other region, 295,454. Layoffs in the Midwest were mainly in administrative and support services and heavy and civil engineering construction and were primarily attributed to seasonal factors. The Northeast region continued to report the lowest annual number of separations (177,013). The largest decline occurred in the West (-92,253).Among the 50 states and the District of Columbia, California continued to report the largest number of separated workers in 2004 (204,298). After California were Illinois (107,071), Florida (82,637), and New York (68,166). These four states accounted for 39 percent of events and 48 percent of separations in 2004 for the year. California (-60,878) had the largest over-the-year decline in the number of separations; Ohio recorded the largest over-the-year increase (+5,563).
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