North Carolina Layoffs November 2026: WARN Numbers Explained

North Carolina has 69 WARN notices covering 6,881 reported workers so far in 2026, according to the Layoff Atlas registry, checked November 9, 2026. That is five more notices and 391 more workers than the 64 notices and 6,490 workers recorded in late October, with the newest official notice dated October 23, 2026. The archive holds 1,287 notices reporting 134,907 workers, and 18 notices still have future effective dates.

These are reported plans, not confirmed job losses. A WARN notice is an employer's advance filing about a planned mass layoff or plant closure; some plans change, shrink, or are withdrawn before the effective date.

The largest North Carolina filings of 2026

The biggest filing of the year is MasterBrand Cabinets in Kinston, with 391 workers affected by a layoff effective November 27, 2026. It was filed September 28, giving workers about 60 days' notice. The next largest filings are:

• Electric Glass Fiber America, Shelby — 282 workers, layoff effective September 30, 2027, filed July 6, 2026.
• Foster, Winston-Salem — 169 workers, closure effective March 5, 2027, filed October 21, 2026.
• Regional Acceptance, Winterville — 156 workers, closure effective February 28, 2027, filed September 15, 2026.
• Elevate Textiles, Burlington — 150 workers, closure effective December 31, 2026, filed July 22, 2026.
• Pella, Reidsville — 133 workers, closure effective January 31, 2027, filed October 15, 2026.
• Bossong Hosiery Mills, Asheboro — 122 workers, closure effective September 9, 2026, filed the same day.
• Sealy Mattress Manufacturing, Trinity — 114 workers, closure effective December 31, 2026, filed October 23, 2026.

The newest official notices, dated October 23, add Toter's two Statesville closures totalling 96 workers, effective December 22, 2026, and FTGU's 93-worker Conover closure, effective December 16.

Closures dominate the list. Of the seven largest 2026 filings, five are closures and two are layoffs. A closure usually means the whole site is going, while a layoff can leave part of the operation running.

What is still coming

The heaviest single day still ahead is December 31, 2026, when three closures take effect on the same day: Sealy Mattress in Trinity (114 workers), Elevate Textiles in Burlington (150), and DHL Supply Chain in Rural Hall (81) — 345 workers in total.

Into 2027: Pella's Reidsville closure on January 31 (133 workers), Regional Acceptance's Winterville closure on February 28 (156), Foster's Winston-Salem closure plus a 12-worker Foster closure in Greenville on March 5 (181 combined), and Electric Glass Fiber America's Shelby layoff on September 30, 2027 (282).

Near term, the week of November 16 brings Comfort First Heating & Cooling's 67-worker layoff in Sanford; the big week is the one containing November 27, when MasterBrand's 391 Kinston workers are affected.

The year in context

North Carolina's 2026 total is running below 2025 (89 notices, 7,365 workers) and 2024 (79 notices, 8,183 workers). The average 2026 filing covers about 100 workers, up from about 83 in 2025 — quieter by count, but the filings that arrive are not small.

The long view shows how unusual 2020 was: 375 notices covering 31,431 workers. Over the last 365 days, the archive holds 79 official filings reporting 7,613 workers — about 96 per filing.

How to read North Carolina's numbers

North Carolina is one of the better-documented states: of the 1,287 archived notices, 1,193 are direct government records from the North Carolina Department of Commerce and only 94 are attributed secondary records. Only one notice has an unavailable worker count.

Even so, the data has limits. WARN coverage is not a census of layoffs: federal law generally requires notice only when 100 or more full-time workers are affected, so smaller layoffs often never appear. The 6,881 workers in 2026 are a floor for reported plans, not a total of everyone laid off in the state. And the two dates on every notice differ: the notice date is when the filing was made, the effective date is when the cuts are scheduled. MasterBrand was noticed on September 28 but does not take effect until November 27.

North Carolina in the national picture

Nationally, the registry's 90-day window holds 694 notices covering 64,044 reported workers, with 30 counts unavailable, updated November 9, 2026. California leads with 21,514 reported workers, followed by Washington with 17,411, Illinois with 3,432, Texas with 2,750, and Maryland with 2,475.

The national calendar stays heavy through the end of the year: 6,473 workers are scheduled in the week of November 9, 6,202 in the week of November 16, 6,207 in the week of November 23, and 5,916 in the week of November 30, before a light week of December 7 (898 workers) and a jump back to 6,274 in the week of December 14. North Carolina's December 31 cluster — 345 workers across three closures — lands just after that final heavy week.

For workers at the affected sites, a WARN notice starts a clock, not an ending: the notice period is the time to file for unemployment, check health coverage options, and look for the next job while still employed. The state's Rapid Response program and the local NCWorks Career Center are the usual first stops for help.

Data source: Layoff Atlas.