Kansas Layoffs November 2026: WARN Numbers Explained

Kansas has had a quiet year for reported layoffs. Through November 10, 2026, the state has logged 8 WARN notices covering 768 workers — down from 13 notices and 1,018 workers in 2025, and well below the 14 notices and 2,745 workers reported in 2024. No Kansas layoffs are currently scheduled on the WARN calendar: the state has zero notices with future effective dates.

These are reported plans, not confirmed job losses. WARN notices are advance warnings employers file with state labor agencies before qualifying mass layoffs or plant closures. The figures below come from Layoff Atlas's imported records, which combine official filings with attributed secondary reports.

The 2026 filings, one by one

Kansas's 2026 total is small enough to list in full. Seven distinct filings account for the year's 768 workers — the eighth notice in the count is a second record of the same First Student filing, once as the official notice and once as a secondary report:

• First Student — 151 workers, notice May 1, 2026. The largest filing of the year, and the only official filing in the last 365 days. One oddity in the record: the filing's listed address is in Cincinnati, Ohio, while the source agency is the Kansas Department of Commerce. The count is reported as filed; the location mismatch is a source-data quirk worth flagging rather than smoothing over.
• First Brands Group (Hopkins), Emporia — 130 workers, notice February 23, 2026.
• Ashley Clinic / Southeast Kansas Mental Health Center, Iola — 116 workers, notice March 27, 2026.
• First Brands Group (Hopkins), Edgerton — 81 workers, notice February 23, 2026.
• Vornado Air, Andover — 72 workers, notice January 30, 2026.
• First Brands Group (Horizon Global), Edgerton — 64 workers, notice February 27, 2026.
• Lowe's — 3 workers, notice February 13, 2026.

First Brands Group accounts for three of the seven filings and 275 workers — more than a third of the state's entire 2026 total. Outside of that cluster, no Kansas employer reported more than 151 workers affected this year, and the average filing covers about 96 workers.

A quiet year in context

Kansas's 2026 numbers continue a three-year slide. The state reported 21 notices and 2,741 workers in 2023, then 14 notices and 2,745 workers in 2024, then 13 notices and 1,018 workers in 2025. This year's 768 workers is roughly a quarter below 2025 and about 72% below 2024.

The longer archive puts the quiet year in perspective. Kansas has 797 non-cancelled WARN notices on record, reporting 93,812 workers affected — but 164 of those notices carry no worker count, so the true total is higher. The archive's heaviest year was 2020, when 64 notices reported 11,432 workers, about 12% of the archive's entire worker total. The 2005 and 2009 downturns also show up clearly: 51 notices and 10,313 workers in 2005, and 50 notices and 8,858 workers in 2009.

The official feed has gone quiet

There is a caveat behind the calm numbers. Of the 797 notices in the Kansas archive, only 6 are direct government records; 791 are attributed secondary reports. In the last 365 days, the imported archive contains exactly one eligible official filing — the First Student notice from May 1, 2026. The state's official WARN feed has been effectively silent for more than six months.

That does not mean no layoffs are happening in Kansas. It means the public record for the state is currently running almost entirely on secondary reports, and gaps in coverage are not the same as zero layoffs. Workers checking the official feed should treat the absence of new filings as a data gap first and a clean bill of health second.

How Kansas compares nationally

Nationally, the current 90-day window holds 667 notices covering 63,168 workers, according to data updated November 10, 2026. California leads by a wide margin with 20,982 workers, followed by Washington with 17,411, Illinois with 3,432, Maryland with 2,484, and Virginia with 2,473. For scale, California alone accounts for more than 27 times Kansas's entire 2026 total.

The national calendar is also busier than Kansas's. The week of November 24 is the heaviest upcoming week, with 9,300 workers scheduled, followed by November 17 with 6,613 and November 10 with 5,477. In total, 30,948 workers are scheduled across the next six weeks. Kansas contributes none of them — the state has no notices with future effective dates.

What Kansas workers should know

A WARN notice gives affected workers at least 60 days' warning before a qualifying mass layoff or plant closure, and Kansas workers covered by a notice can use that window to file for unemployment, contact the state's Rapid Response team for retraining help, and check whether severance or benefits continue past the effective date. With no Kansas layoffs currently on the calendar, the practical takeaway is narrower: keep an eye on the official feed's silence. If a filing does appear, the notice date starts the clock — and the 60 days are the time to act, not to wait.

Data source: Layoff Atlas.