Rhode Island Layoffs — May 2016

Employers in Rhode Island recorded 7 WARN Act notices in May 2016, covering approximately 822 workers — marking a sharp increase from April and up 1342% versus May 2015. The average filing covered 117 workers, with 3 closures among the notices.

Industry Breakdown

Industry classification was not available for filings in Rhode Island this month. A total of 822 workers were affected across 7 notices.

Geographic Hotspots

County	Notices	Workers
Providence	7	822

Providence absorbed the greatest share of layoffs, accounting for 100% of all affected workers with 822 workers across 7 notices.

City	Notices	Workers
Cumberland	2	374
Smithfield	2	308
Providence	2	120
North Scituate	1	20

Layoff Type Analysis

Type	Notices	Workers
Closure	3	267
Layoff	1	154

Closures accounted for 32% of affected workers, while the majority of filings were layoffs rather than permanent shutdowns.

Largest Layoffs

Company	City	Workers	Type	Date
Homemade Real Foods	Cumberland	187		2016-05-02
Homemade Real Foods	Cumberland	187	Closure	2016-05-06
Aramark	Smithfield	154	Layoff	2016-05-05
Aramark	Smithfield	154		2016-05-05
Optum	Providence	60	Closure	2016-05-04
OptumRx	Providence	60		2016-05-04
First Student	North Scituate	20	Closure	2016-05-05

Leading the list was Homemade Real Foods at its Cumberland facility, reporting 187 affected workers. Homemade Real Foods followed with 187 workers.

Trend & Outlook

This marks the third consecutive month of rising layoff activity.

The filings reflect mounting pressure on the Rhode Island labor market, with activity running above both recent and year-ago benchmarks.

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