Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Massive Unemployment: Mass Layoffs August 2009

Today, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the August installment of the Mass Layoff Report showing a notable weakening of the nation’s job market with 2690 mass layoff events resulting in 259,307 initial unemployment claimants on a seasonally adjusted basis.

On a seasonally un-adjusted basis, the mass layoff events totaled 1428 with 125,024 initial claimants.

The BLS considers a mass layoff event to be a condition where there are at least fifty initial claims for unemployment insurance originating from a single employer over a period of five consecutive weeks.