Major US employers issued the lowest number of layoff announcements ever in May this year, in keeping with the strong employment numbers announced by the government on June 5.
USA TODAY tracked only 250 mass layoff notices in May, affecting 32,000 workers. This included 11 layoff complaints filed by Spirit Airlines in several states in May, affecting about 7,000 employees. The airline announced the shutdown in early May and ceased all flight operations.
Jobs report signals strength
According to the latest data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, US employers added 172,000 jobs in May, with the unemployment rate remaining stable at 4.3%.
The agency also revised jobs data from previous months. Jobs figures were higher than initial numbers in both March and April.
Layoff records tracked through Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) filings collected by USA TODAY show a downward trend since January, when more than 400 notices came for cuts totaling more than 40,000 jobs. The filings represent layoff announcements by businesses with at least 100 employees.
Such companies have announced nearly 2,000 layoffs in the first five months of this year, affecting more than 166,000 workers, according to USA TODAY’s tracking database. Nearly 13% fewer jobs are reported to have been cut compared to the same period last year.
“Right now, the labor market is uncertain,” said Corey Stahle, senior economist at Indeed. “It’s stable in the sense that we’ve reached a kind of equilibrium point, but it’s not clear whether that equilibrium point is actually a critical point.”
Stahle said the current “very good” job market sits alongside underlying risks and uncertainty, including the ongoing conflict in Iran and high energy and gas prices.
And disparities exist in today’s labor market: Workers who are already employed and in growing sectors are finding jobs relatively easily, while those who are unemployed or out of those growing industries are struggling to find work.
The latest federal data shows the number of long-term unemployed Americans is rising, even as the market is showing stronger-than-expected employment growth.
Understanding warning notices
The WARN Act, passed in 1988, requires employers with 100 or more full-time employees to give at least 60 days’ notice before a mass layoff or plant closing. The purpose of this act is to give workers time to prepare for job loss and begin looking for new employment.
USA TODAY collects WARN filings from 43 state labor departments and the District of Columbia to track layoffs from major companies across the country. The database includes notices dating back to the 1990s and allows readers to search by state, company, and year.
Seven states, including Arkansas, Hawaii, Mississippi, New Hampshire, North Dakota, West Virginia, and Wyoming, do not offer public data access or have inconsistent data formats.
Because WARN reporting systems vary by state, filings may appear weeks after layoff announcements, and companies may also amend or withdraw notices. So the totals in the tracker may change when new records are updated.
Still, experts view WARN notices as a leading indicator of large-scale job cuts, offering an early estimate of the timing and size of workforce cuts that may not take effect until two months after the announcements.
“It’s more important than ever to keep track of what’s happening with these WARN notices,” Stahle said, “because a significant increase in layoff numbers could quickly offset job gains.”
Which states are leading in layoffs
California continued to lead the nation in layoffs recorded through WARN filings, followed by Washington and Texas.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY. Reporting by Dian Zhang/USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect.
