Employers in Washington posted 15 WARN Act notices in August 2015, affecting an estimated 907 workers — reflecting a significant uptick compared to July and up 50% versus August 2014. The average filing covered 60 workers, with 3 closures among the notices.
| Industry | Notices | Workers |
|---|---|---|
| Accommodation & Food | 2 | 164 |
| Retail | 2 | 124 |
The Accommodation & Food sector saw the heaviest impact with 164 workers across 2 notices. On a related front, Retail reported 124 workers.
| County | Notices | Workers |
|---|---|---|
| Pierce | 4 | 378 |
| King | 6 | 264 |
| Clark | 2 | 164 |
Pierce felt the sharpest impact, accounting for 42% of all affected workers with 378 workers across 4 notices.
| City | Notices | Workers |
|---|---|---|
| Tacoma | 2 | 254 |
| Bellevue | 4 | 216 |
| Vancouver | 2 | 164 |
| Spanaway | 2 | 124 |
| Puget Sound | 3 | 101 |
| Type | Notices | Workers |
|---|---|---|
| Closure | 3 | 271 |
| Layoff | 4 | 171 |
Closures accounted for 30% of affected workers, while the majority of filings were layoffs rather than permanent shutdowns.
| Company | City | Workers | Type | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Interfor | Tacoma | 127 | Closure | 2015-08-24 |
| Interfor | Tacoma | 127 | 2015-08-24 | |
| HTC America | Bellevue | 85 | Layoff | 2015-08-24 |
| HTC America | Bellevue | 85 | 2015-08-24 | |
| Red Lion Hotel | Vancouver | 82 | Closure | 2015-08-26 |
| Red Lion Hotel | Vancouver | 82 | 2015-08-26 | |
| Haggen Food & Pharmacy | Spanaway | 62 | Closure | 2015-08-14 |
| Haggen Food & Pharmacy | Spanaway | 62 | 2015-08-14 | |
| Boeing | Puget Sound | 39 | Layoff | 2015-08-24 |
| Boeing | Puget Sound | 39 | 2015-08-24 | |
| HTC America Innovation | Seattle | 24 | Layoff | 2015-08-10 |
| HTC America Innovation | Seattle | 24 | 2015-08-10 | |
| HTC America | Bellevue | 23 | Layoff | 2015-08-10 |
| HTC America | Bellevue | 23 | 2015-08-10 | |
| Boeing | Puget Sound | 23 | 2015-08-21 |
The largest notice was filed by Interfor at its Tacoma facility, reporting 127 affected workers. Interfor followed with 127 workers.
After a dip last month, layoff activity has ticked back up.
The trends suggest 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.
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