Washington Layoffs — September 2015

Employers in Washington filed 4 WARN Act notices in September 2015, impacting roughly 2,402 workers — representing a notable rise over August and up 87% versus September 2014. The average filing covered 600 workers, with 1 closure among the notices.

Industry Breakdown

Industry	Notices	Workers
Retail	2	2,146

The Retail sector led the way in workforce reductions with 2,146 workers across 2 notices.

Geographic Hotspots

County	Notices	Workers
Whatcom	2	256

Whatcom saw the most concentrated activity, accounting for 11% of all affected workers with 256 workers across 2 notices.

City	Notices	Workers
Statewide	2	2,146
Bellingham	2	256

Layoff Type Analysis

Type	Notices	Workers
Closure	1	1,073
Layoff	1	128

Closures accounted for 45% of affected workers, while the majority of filings were layoffs rather than permanent shutdowns.

Largest Layoffs

Company	City	Workers	Type	Date
Haggen Food & Pharmacy	Statewide	1,073	Closure	2015-09-25
Haggen Food & Pharmacy	Statewide	1,073		2015-09-25
Ch2M	Bellingham	128	Layoff	2015-09-23
Ch2M	Bellingham	128		2015-09-23

The single largest action involved Haggen Food & Pharmacy at its Statewide facility, reporting 1,073 affected workers. Haggen Food & Pharmacy followed with 1,073 workers.

Trend & Outlook

This marks the third consecutive month of rising layoff activity.

The data underscores mounting pressure on the Washington labor market, with activity running above both recent and year-ago benchmarks. The Retail 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.