Washington Layoffs — September 2006

Employers in Washington filed 5 WARN Act notices in September 2006, impacting roughly 285 workers — representing a pullback from August and up 33% versus September 2005. The average filing covered 57 workers, with 1 closure among the notices.

Industry Breakdown

Industry	Notices	Workers
Utilities	1	15

The Utilities sector led the way in workforce reductions with 15 workers across 1 notice.

Geographic Hotspots

County	Notices	Workers
King	3	186
Okanogan	1	84
Kitsap	1	15

King saw the most concentrated activity, accounting for 65% of all affected workers with 186 workers across 3 notices.

City	Notices	Workers
Seattle	1	120
Pateros	1	84
Bellevue	2	66
Bremerton	1	15

Layoff Type Analysis

Type	Notices	Workers
Layoff	4	201
Closure	1	84

Closures accounted for 29% of affected workers, while the majority of filings were layoffs rather than permanent shutdowns.

Largest Layoffs

Company	City	Workers	Type	Date
DMX Music	Seattle	120	Layoff	2006-09-01
Chelan Fruit	Pateros	84	Closure	2006-09-28
Trammell Crow Company	Bellevue	64	Layoff	2006-09-15
Electric Boat	Bremerton	15	Layoff	2006-09-15
Sun Microsystems, Inc	Bellevue	2	Layoff	2006-09-28

The single largest action involved DMX Music at its Seattle facility, reporting 120 affected workers. Chelan Fruit followed with 84 workers.

Trend & Outlook

This is the third consecutive month of declining layoff activity.

The data underscores a mixed picture for Washington's labor market, with activity diverging between monthly and annual comparisons. The Utilities 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.