Iowa Layoffs — November 2008

Employers in Iowa logged 4 WARN Act notices in November 2008, involving roughly 398 workers — climbing above October and up 1006% versus November 2007. The average filing covered 100 workers, with 3 closures among the notices.

Industry Breakdown

Industry	Notices	Workers
Finance & Insurance	1	56

The Finance & Insurance sector dominated layoff filings with 56 workers across 1 notice.

Geographic Hotspots

County	Notices	Workers
Winneshiek	1	213
Jefferson	1	108
Polk	1	56
Black Hawk	1	21

Winneshiek absorbed the greatest share of layoffs, accounting for 54% of all affected workers with 213 workers across 1 notices.

City	Notices	Workers
Decorah	1	213
Fairfield	1	108
Des Moines	1	56
Waterloo	1	21

Layoff Type Analysis

Type	Notices	Workers
Closure	3	377

The high proportion of closures (95% of affected workers) suggests structural shifts rather than temporary cutbacks in Iowa's labor market.

Largest Layoffs

Company	City	Workers	Type	Date
Knife River	Decorah	213	Closure	2008-11-25
Books Are Fun, Ltd	Fairfield	108	Closure	2008-11-12
Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago	Des Moines	56	Closure	2008-11-21
Eagle Ottawa, LLC	Waterloo	21		2008-11-11

The biggest impact was at Knife River at its Decorah facility, reporting 213 affected workers. Books Are Fun, Ltd followed with 108 workers.

Trend & Outlook

After a dip last month, layoff activity has ticked back up.

This data points to mounting pressure on the Iowa labor market, with activity running above both recent and year-ago benchmarks. The Finance & Insurance sector warrants close attention heading into the next period.

This analysis is based on official WARN Act filings reported by Iowa. 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 Iowa WARN notices, browse layoffs by state, or download the full dataset.