California Overtakes Washington as the Top State for Reported Layoffs

California has moved into first place in Layoff Atlas's ranking of states by reported workers in recent WARN notices, passing Washington for the first time in this autumn's tracking. As of the latest data update on October 31, 2026, California accounts for 17,715 reported workers in the 90-day notice window, just ahead of Washington's 17,361 — a gap of only 354 workers.

The change is notable because Washington led this ranking by a wide margin only days ago. On October 28, Washington stood at about 17,050 reported workers while California was at about 13,427. In other words, California has closed a gap of roughly 3,600 workers and moved ahead within a few days. Rankings built on a rolling window can move that fast, and this one did.

The current top five

The five states with the most reported workers in the 90-day window are:

• California: 17,715 reported workers
• Washington: 17,361 reported workers
• Illinois: 4,385 reported workers
• Texas: 3,280 reported workers
• Georgia: 2,492 reported workers

Together, California and Washington account for 35,076 reported workers — more than half of the national total of 66,703 reported workers across 686 notices in the same window. The next state, Illinois, sits far behind at 4,385. The ranking is really a two-state story at the top, followed by a steep drop.

The national figures come with an important qualifier: 29 notices in the window have no available worker count, so those workers are excluded from the totals. The figures describe reported plans, not confirmed job losses, and coverage and reporting rules vary by state.

Why a ranking like this moves

Layoff Atlas's headline ranking uses a 90-day notice window: only notices with published notice dates in the last 90 days count. That design makes the ranking sensitive to timing in both directions. New filings push a state's total up, while older filings drop out of the window as it rolls forward and pull a state's total down.

That mechanic is the most likely explanation for a swing of this size happening in days, rather than a sudden wave of new California layoffs. California's recent filings include several large notices dated in mid-to-late October: Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream temporary filings in Bakersfield and Tulare, a 533-worker temporary filing from Fender Musical Instruments in Corona, two Netflix filings in Los Gatos and Los Angeles totalling 494 workers, a 229-worker eBay filing in San Jose, and a 92-worker Safeway closure filing in Richmond. Those notices entered the window recently and are still counted. At the same time, older filings that once lifted other states are quietly leaving it.

Washington's own filing history underlines the point. Its full archive holds 1,528 imported notices reporting 249,913 workers, and its 2026 archive year totals 133 notices and 28,515 reported workers. Its newest official notice date is October 29, 2026, and it has 48 notices with future effective dates. None of that has collapsed — Washington's total in the 90-day window is still 17,361, close to where it was days ago. California simply caught up and passed it.

California's longer record looks different

It is worth keeping the 90-day ranking in proportion. California's archive is far larger than any other state's: 17,621 non-cancelled imported notices reporting 1,455,786 workers in total, with 1,193 notices and 63,959 reported workers in 2026 alone. California's state labor agency publishes WARN notices in high volume, and the state's size means more employers and more filings. A top ranking in a 90-day window therefore reflects both the scale of California's economy and the completeness of its published notices — not a claim that California's job market is the weakest in the country.

The same caution applies in the other direction. A state low in the ranking may simply publish fewer notices, report through different channels, or have gaps in source coverage. Missing source coverage is not zero layoffs. The ranking compares what has been reported and captured, not every layoff that happened.

What to watch next

The gap at the top is small — 354 workers is about 2 percent of California's total — so the lead could change hands again with a single large filing or with the next roll of the window. Two things are worth watching. First, whether California's lead widens as more October notices are published, or narrows as early-August filings age out. Second, the upcoming effective weeks: 8,453 workers are scheduled for the week of November 14, the heaviest upcoming week, followed by 6,925 in the week of November 21 and 5,937 in the week of November 28. Those effective dates are when the reported plans are scheduled to take effect, not new announcements, but they will shape how the totals look in the coming weeks.

For workers, the state ranking matters less than the individual notice: the employer, the location, the effective date, and the notice period. A statewide total cannot tell a worker in Folsom or Bakersfield anything about their own job. But for readers tracking the national picture, the flip at the top is a useful reminder of how these numbers work. They move with the window, they reflect reported plans rather than confirmed losses, and a lead of a few hundred workers in a 66,703-worker total is a lead that can disappear quickly.

Data source: Layoff Atlas