North Carolina Layoffs 2026: WARN Numbers Explained

North Carolina has 1,282 imported WARN layoff notices on record reporting 134,516 affected workers, according to Layoff Atlas's full archive. For 2026 alone, the archive holds 64 notices reporting 6,490 workers — and with the year not yet over, that count is still moving. Over the last 365 days, North Carolina has produced 78 official state filings reporting 7,948 affected workers, the newest filed on October 19, 2026.

An important caveat runs through all of this: WARN filings describe reported plans, not confirmed job losses. Companies can revise or cancel plans, and worker counts sometimes shift between the notice date and the effective date. Treat every figure below as what was reported, not what ultimately happened.

2026 so far: the biggest filings

The largest North Carolina filing of 2026 is MasterBrand Cabinets' 391-worker layoff in Kinston, noticed September 28, 2026, with an effective date of November 27, 2026. Manufacturing dominates the top of the 2026 list:

• MasterBrand Cabinets — Kinston, 391 workers (notice Sep 28, 2026; effective Nov 27, 2026; layoff)
• Electric Glass Fiber America — Shelby, 282 workers (notice Jul 6, 2026; layoff)
• Regional Acceptance — Winterville, 156 workers (notice Sep 15, 2026; effective Feb 28, 2027; closure) plus 97 workers in Greenville (effective Jul 31, 2027)
• Elevate Textiles — Burlington, 150 workers (notice Jul 22, 2026; effective Dec 31, 2026; closure)
• Pella — Reidsville, 133 workers (notice Oct 15, 2026; effective Jan 31, 2027; closure)
• Carolina West Wireless — Wilkesboro, 127 workers (notice Jun 24, 2026; effective Aug 24, 2026; closure)
• Bossong Hosiery Mills — Asheboro, 122 workers (notice and effective Sep 9, 2026; closure)
• Asensus Surgical — Morrisville, 108 workers (notice Jun 16, 2026; effective Mar 31, 2027; layoff)
• FTGU — Conover, 93 workers (notice Oct 19, 2026; effective Dec 16, 2026; closure)
• Barrette Outdoor Living — Salisbury, 93 workers (notice Jul 1, 2026; effective Oct 12, 2026; layoff)
• DHL Supply Chain — Rural Hall, 81 workers (notice Jun 5, 2026; effective Dec 31, 2026; closure)

The list mixes classic North Carolina industries — furniture and cabinetry (MasterBrand, Pella), textiles (Elevate, Bossong Hosiery), and fiber manufacturing (Electric Glass Fiber) — with distribution, wireless, and medical-device employers. Closures and layoffs are both well represented, and several of the 2026 notices carry effective dates stretching into 2027, which is typical: the notice lands first, the affected date follows months later.

How 2026 compares to past years

2026's 64 notices and 6,490 workers sit well below the recent peaks. 2023 had 103 notices and 9,058 workers; 2018 had 123 notices and 13,662 workers; 2016 had 86 notices and 13,712 workers. The outlier remains 2020, when 375 notices reported 31,431 workers — the COVID-19 shock compressed a decade's worth of filings into one year.

That comparison deserves a caution of its own: more notices in the archive doesn't always mean a worse year. Coverage and import depth vary by year, and 2026 is incomplete. What the pattern does show is that 2026 is not tracking as an exceptional year for North Carolina layoff notices by either count or scale.

The state's data quality is strong

North Carolina is one of the better-documented states in the archive: 1,188 of its 1,282 records are direct government records, with only 94 attributed secondary records, and just 1 notice with an unavailable worker count. Fourteen notices carry future effective dates, including several 2027 closures — the early-warning function of the WARN system working as designed.

What to watch

The immediate horizon is dominated by closures: Elevate Textiles' Burlington closure (150 workers, effective December 31, 2026), FTGU's Conover closure (93 workers, effective December 16, 2026), and MasterBrand's Kinston layoff (391 workers, effective November 27, 2026) are the largest upcoming North Carolina events currently on record. All three are manufacturing employers, and all three are reported plans — worth watching, and worth remembering the distinction.

Data source: Layoff Atlas