2023 Layoffs in Review

A look at the data behind 300,000 government reported layoffs in 2023

At least 320,000 employees were laid off in 2023 in the US, according to public government data records, up 68% from 2022, when 190,000 employee layoffs were reported.

Looking at the data reveals a harsh truth: not everyone nor every state was impacted equally. Here are some other trends from 2023 layoff data reported by 40 state governments, as aggregated by us, WARNTracker.com (check out the site to search for specific layoffs by company/state/year).

Trends

• Layoffs picked up notably in 2023, but the 2023 numbers are still dwarfed by the layoff wave of 2020.

• Excluding 2020, we see that 2023 was the highest year for layoffs in the last decade, and 14% higher than the 2nd highest layoff year in the last decade (280,000 in 2019, vs 320,000 in 2023)

• Variance per state is high: 2.3 out of every thousand Washingtonians, while only 0.1 out of every thousand Oklahomans were laid off, based on 2023 WARN notices.

Some of the states showing the highest layoffs per capita, also have their own “Mini-WARN” acts, which impose stricter requirements on layoff reporting, This may partially account for the large difference.

Read the full report

👉 Read the full report on the WARNTracker blog here: https://www.warntracker.com/blog/2023-layoffs-review

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👉 If you need more help want to discuss other data solutions, email us at [email protected].