Employers took 1,546 mass layoff actions in August which resulted in 150,192 workers losing their jobs, says the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL).
A mass layoff is defined as when 50 or more people file for unemployment insurance benefits against a single employer during a five-week period. This does not include workers who lost their jobs due to a plant closing.
The news comes on the heels of another DOL release showing a spike in the number of new claims for unemployment benefits. Weekly unemployment claims have jumped by 12,000 to 465,000 new claims.
The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) requires employers provide workers 60 days notice before a mass layoff or plant closing – a sort of heads up that workers are about to lose their job.
How about extending your elected officials the same “courtesy?” The November elections are just over one month away. Send them a WARN Notice telling them to either do more to create jobs or risk losing their own.
Tell them there are issues that directly impact the unemployed – job creation, unemployment insurance, COBRA, food stamps and mortgage assistance – and you have been paying close attention to how they’ve voted.
Put your Congressperson, governor and state officials on notice. Send them a WARN Notice today.