Tennessee Counts 19 Mass Layoffs in July

 Tennessee reported 18 mass layoffs in July which resulted in 1,412 initial claims for unemployment insurance, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday.

That was up from 12 mass layoffs in July 2007 and 784 unemployment insurance claims. The numbers were down from June which had 19 mass layoffs resulting in 1,877 unemployment claims.

The numbers are not seasonally adjusted.

Nationwide, there were 1,512 mass layoff actions affecting 151,171 workers. The number of layoffs dropped in July by 131 compared to June and the number of affected workers dropped by 14,526.

The South had the second largest number of initial claims among the four regions at 48,440.

Tennessee's unemployment rate for July was 6.9 percent, up from 6.5 percent in June and 4.6 percent a year ago.

A mass layoff event is when there are 50 or more initial claims for unemployment insurance benefits from an employer during a five-week period, with at least 50 workers separated for more than 30 days.

Seasonal adjustment is the process of estimating and removing the statistical effect of regularly recurring seasonal events such as changes in the weather, holidays and the beginning and ending of the school year.