The Week of November 16: 6,145 Workers Scheduled for Layoffs

The week of November 16, 2026, is shaping up as the second-heaviest layoff week on the current WARN calendar. According to Layoff Atlas, 6,145 workers are scheduled for layoffs effective that week — behind only the week of November 9, which leads the calendar with 6,568 workers.

These are reported plans, not confirmed job losses. WARN notices are advance notifications that employers file with state labor agencies before qualifying mass layoffs and plant closures. A scheduled effective date is the date the employer says the layoffs will take effect, and the figures can change if an employer postpones, extends, or cancels a planned action.

Where November 16 sits in the six-week stretch

The six weeks from October 26 through November 30 carry 34,989 scheduled workers in total, based on the effective dates currently in the registry. The week-by-week picture is:

• Week of October 26: 5,503 workers
• Week of November 2: 5,061 workers
• Week of November 9: 6,568 workers, the heaviest week
• Week of November 16: 6,145 workers
• Week of November 23: 6,120 workers
• Week of November 30: 5,592 workers

November 16 accounts for about 18 percent of that six-week total, and about 9 percent of all 65,527 workers in the current 90-day notice window. What stands out is not a single spike but the sustained level: every one of these six weeks carries more than 5,000 scheduled workers, and the three weeks from November 9 through November 23 each carry more than 6,100.

That persistence matters for workers and for the communities around affected sites. A single heavy week can reflect one or two large filings. A run of heavy weeks, like this one, points to many employers reaching their effective dates in the same stretch of the calendar.

The national picture behind the week

The current 90-day notice window on Layoff Atlas holds 679 notices covering 65,527 reported workers, with 33 counts unavailable. The window was updated on October 25, 2026. Washington and California continue to dominate the state ranking, with 17,073 and 14,001 workers respectively, followed by Illinois at 4,626, Texas at 3,652, and Ohio at 3,180.

State totals need careful reading. Coverage and reporting rules vary by state, and some states publish WARN notices more completely or more promptly than others. A high state total can reflect better reporting as well as more layoff activity, and a low total is not proof that no layoffs are happening in that state. The registry covers 51 jurisdictions, and 48 of them have imported records.

What to watch as November 16 approaches

Three things are worth tracking in the weeks before November 16 arrives.

First, whether the week's total moves. New notices with November 16 effective dates can still be filed, and existing filings can change. The week's figure is a snapshot of the registry as of October 25, not a final count.

Second, whether the weight stays spread across employers or concentrates. The current calendar's heaviest weeks have been driven by a mix of filings rather than a single event, and November 16 will be worth revisiting once the underlying notices are clearer.

Third, what follows it. The week of November 23 carries 6,120 workers — nearly as many as November 16 — so the heavy stretch does not end with this week. Workers facing a November effective date should not assume the calendar quiets down after their own date passes; the weeks on either side are carrying similar totals.

How to read these numbers

WARN data has built-in limits. The federal law generally applies to employers with 100 or more full-time employees, and only to layoffs that meet size and duration thresholds, so smaller layoffs often never produce a notice. Some states add their own mini-WARN laws with lower thresholds, which is one reason state totals are not directly comparable.

The figures also describe plans at the time of filing. An employer that files a notice and then changes course may never carry out the full planned reduction, and a notice with an unavailable worker count contributes nothing to the totals. That is why Layoff Atlas describes these figures as reported plans, not confirmed job losses — and why the totals move as the 90-day window rolls forward and older notices drop out.

For workers, the practical step is the same regardless of the week: confirm whether your employer has filed a notice for your site, note the effective date on that filing, and check what help your state's Rapid Response team offers. The notice itself, not the weekly total, is what determines your timeline.

The week of November 16 is not the heaviest week on the calendar, but it does not need to be. At 6,145 workers, in the middle of a six-week run where no week falls below 5,000, it is part of the heaviest sustained stretch of scheduled layoffs in the current data.

Data source: Layoff Atlas