Washington Layoffs — August 2012

Employers in Washington posted 3 WARN Act notices in August 2012, affecting an estimated 867 workers — reflecting a significant uptick compared to July and up 36% versus August 2011. The average filing covered 289 workers, with 1 closure among the notices.

Industry Breakdown

Industry	Notices	Workers
Healthcare	1	827

The Healthcare sector saw the heaviest impact with 827 workers across 1 notice.

Geographic Hotspots

County	Notices	Workers
King	1	827
Pierce	1	35
Benton	1	5

King felt the sharpest impact, accounting for 95% of all affected workers with 827 workers across 1 notices.

City	Notices	Workers
Auburn	1	827
Milton	1	35
Richland	1	5

Layoff Type Analysis

Type	Notices	Workers
Layoff	2	832
Closure	1	35

Closures accounted for 4% of affected workers, while the majority of filings were layoffs rather than permanent shutdowns.

Largest Layoffs

Company	City	Workers	Type	Date
Auburn Regional Medical Center	Auburn	827	Layoff	2012-08-01
Harland Clarke Holdings Corp	Milton	35	Closure	2012-08-06
AREVA Federal Services LLC	Richland	5	Layoff	2012-08-21

The largest notice was filed by Auburn Regional Medical Center at its Auburn facility, reporting 827 affected workers. Harland Clarke Holdings Corp followed with 35 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 Healthcare 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.