Florida records 56 mass layoff actions in October

Florida employers accounted for 56 mass layoff actions in October, as measured by new filings for unemployment insurance benefits during the month, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

A mass layoff event occurs when 50 or more initial claims for unemployment insurance benefits are filed against an establishment during a five-week period, regardless of duration.

The 56 mass layoff actions recorded this October in Florida are up from 36 in October 2005, the BLS says, accounting for a total of 3,289 claims that were made for unemployment insurance, up 21 percent from 2,706 in October 2005.

Nationwide, employers took 1,171 mass layoff actions involving 113,724 workers, the BLS reports. Year to date through October, the total number of initial claims (1,093,702) was the lowest reported for any January-October period in program history, the BLS reports.

The industry with the highest number of layoff claims was temporary help services with 8,283. The manufacturing sector accounted for 32 percent of all mass layoff events and 47 percent of all related initial claims filed in October.

Among the states, California had the highest number of initial claims in October with 25,931, followed by Kentucky (9,645), Pennsylvania (6,920), Michigan (6,432) and Illinois (5,508).

A breakdown by census region shows that the West led all others with the highest number of initial claims in October due to mass layoffs (32,780). The Midwest was second-largest (28,833), followed by the South (23,687). The Northeast (13,504) had the lowest number of initial claims.

From January to October, California also led the pack, reporting 255,626 mass layoff initial claims -- 23 percent of the national total. The states with the next-largest number of claims over this period included Michigan (94,486), Pennsylvania (66,594), New York (61,989) and Ohio (59,445).