Washington Layoffs — March 2020

Employers in Washington logged 89 WARN Act notices in March 2020, involving roughly 14,848 workers — climbing above 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 dominated layoff filings with 6,502 workers across 43 notices. Meanwhile, Government reported 2,618 workers.

Geographic Hotspots

King bore the heaviest burden, 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 biggest impact was at 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.

This data points to 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.