Washington Layoffs — March 2020

Employers in Washington posted 89 WARN Act notices in March 2020, affecting an estimated 14,848 workers — reflecting a significant uptick compared to February and up 2870% versus March 2019. The average filing covered 167 workers, with 3 closures among the notices.

Industry Breakdown

The Accommodation & Food sector saw the heaviest impact with 6,502 workers across 43 notices. On a related front, Government reported 2,618 workers.

Geographic Hotspots

King felt the sharpest impact, accounting for 78% of all affected workers with 11,615 workers across 60 notices.

Layoff Type Analysis

Closures accounted for 3% of affected workers, while the majority of filings were layoffs rather than permanent shutdowns.

Largest Layoffs

The largest notice was filed by YMCA of Greater Seattle at its Seattle facility, reporting 2,222 affected workers. Pac-12 Enterprises, DBA Pac-12 Networks followed with 531 workers.

Trend & Outlook

This marks the third consecutive month of rising layoff activity.

The trends suggest mounting pressure on the Washington labor market, with activity running above both recent and year-ago benchmarks. The Accommodation & Food sector warrants close attention heading into the next period.

This analysis is based on official WARN Act filings reported by Washington. The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act requires employers with 100+ employees to provide 60-day advance notice of mass layoffs and plant closings. Data is updated daily by WARN Firehose. View all Washington WARN notices, browse layoffs by state, or download the full dataset.