California job cuts from ‘mass layoffs’ up 25% last month

By News on the Net —— Bio and Archives February 26, 2009

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More evidence of how the job market has fallen off a cliff this year: California was hit much harder in January by "mass layoff events" -- cuts of 50 or more jobs by a single employer -- compared with December.

The number of Californians filing initial unemployment-benefit claims because they were let go as part of a mass layoff totaled 54,153 last month, a jump of 25% from December, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said Wednesday. By contrast, the January mass-layoff claims figure for the nation as a whole rose 11% to 388,813. The data aren't adjusted for seasonal variations...more