Washington Layoffs — December 2008

Employers in Washington posted 4 WARN Act notices in December 2008, affecting an estimated 347 workers — reflecting a cooling compared to November and up 18% versus December 2007. The average filing covered 87 workers, with 1 closure among the notices.

Industry Breakdown

Industry	Notices	Workers
Information & Technology	1	120

The Information & Technology sector saw the heaviest impact with 120 workers across 1 notice.

Geographic Hotspots

County	Notices	Workers
King	2	223
Spokane	1	120
Lewis	1	4

King was the epicenter of layoff activity, accounting for 64% of all affected workers with 223 workers across 2 notices.

City	Notices	Workers
Renton	1	166
Liberty Lake	1	120
Woodinville	1	57
Chehalis	1	4

Layoff Type Analysis

Type	Notices	Workers
Layoff	3	343
Closure	1	4

Closures accounted for 1% of affected workers, while the majority of filings were layoffs rather than permanent shutdowns.

Largest Layoffs

Company	City	Workers	Type	Date
Hunter Douglas	Renton	166	Layoff	2008-12-03
Agilent Technologies	Liberty Lake	120	Layoff	2008-12-30
North Sky Communications	Woodinville	57	Layoff	2008-12-23
ABX Air	Chehalis	4	Closure	2008-12-26

The largest notice was filed by Hunter Douglas at its Renton facility, reporting 166 affected workers. Agilent Technologies followed with 120 workers.

Trend & Outlook

The trends suggest a mixed picture for Washington's labor market, with activity diverging between monthly and annual comparisons. The Information & Technology 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.