Washington Layoffs 2026: WARN Numbers Explained

Washington currently sits at the top of the national WARN registry. Filings in the state cover 16,776 workers — more than any other state in the country, and nearly a quarter of all workers in the 90-day window tracked nationally (738 notices covering 67,937 reported workers as of October 8, 2026).

That is a striking number for a state with roughly one-sixth of California's population, yet Washington outranks California (15,734) in the registry. Here is what the numbers show, what is driving them, and what they don't show.

The headline filing: Gebbers Farms

The single largest recent Washington filing — and one of the largest in the country — is Gebbers Farms in Brewster, WA: 3,445 workers, effective November 25, 2026. It is an agricultural employer, which matters for how to read the number: farm operations run on harvest seasons, and large seasonal workforce changes are part of the business cycle. A WARN filing records the employer's plan; it does not tell you how many of those workers will be rehired next season, and seasonal filings are routinely amended.

One filing accounting for roughly one in five of Washington's reported workers also shows how a single large event can dominate a state's total. Strip it out and Washington's picture looks different.

Tech cuts in the Seattle area

The rest of Washington's total comes mostly from a long tail of tech and corporate filings around Seattle. Two recent examples reported by local news:

• Oracle filed a WARN notice covering 359 workers across two Seattle facilities and remote Washington staff, with separations expected to begin November 13 — part of a broader cost-restructuring effort the company says is permanent.
• Expedia Group filed for 58 positions at its Seattle Interbay campus, with separations scheduled between November 21 and December 1, spanning technical, product, and corporate roles — cuts the company links to AI-driven operational changes.

Neither is close to the Gebbers number on its own, but dozens of filings like these accumulate. Tech, aerospace, and corporate functions are Washington's concentration risk: when a sector restructures, the state's registry moves.

Food processing and healthcare

Beyond tech, Washington's filings include National Frozen Foods Corporation: 439 workers across its Moses Lake and Chehalis facilities, effective November 15 — another seasonal, agriculture-linked employer in central Washington. On the healthcare side, PeaceHealth filed a WARN notice for 150 Washington workers amid a broader IT outsourcing restructuring, with layoffs expected by November 20.

The pattern is two separate stories running in parallel: seasonal/agricultural workforce swings in central Washington, and structural corporate restructuring in the Seattle metro.

How Washington compares

The current top five states in the registry:

1. Washington — 16,776
2. California — 15,734
3. Illinois — 4,861
4. Texas — 3,957
5. Ohio — 3,224

Washington and California together hold nearly half of all reported workers nationally. After the top two there is a steep cliff — Illinois has less than a third of Washington's total. Washington's lead is especially notable per capita: it has a much smaller workforce than California or Texas, which points to sector-specific restructuring (tech, aerospace, agriculture) rather than broad-based weakness.

Read the rankings with care, though. WARN thresholds shape what each state captures: Washington follows the federal threshold (generally 100+ employees for a qualifying mass layoff), so smaller layoffs never appear. California's mini-WARN law (75+ employees) captures more — which is one reason its total looks high. A state without a connected source is marked unavailable, not counted as zero. And worker totals exclude records with unavailable headcounts, so true figures are likely higher.

What these numbers are — and are not

This is the caveat that has to travel with every layoff figure: these are reported plans, not confirmed job losses. A WARN notice is an advance notification of an intended layoff. Plans change, dates shift, counts get revised, and a notice does not establish that the reported losses occurred.

Notice date and effective date are also different things. The notice date is when the filing was published; the effective date is the planned first day of the event. Most of Washington's big numbers have effective dates in November — the 60-day federal notice rule means September decisions land in November, which is why the calendar clusters.

If you may be affected

The effective date on the filing is your timeline. Washington's Employment Security Department runs rapid response services for affected workers, and unemployment insurance, retraining programs, and job placement help are available through the state workforce system. The employer's notice and the state agency are the best starting points — not the headlines.

The watch list

For Washington, three dates matter in the next two months: November 13 (Oracle), November 15 (National Frozen Foods), and November 25 (Gebbers Farms). Watch whether those numbers hold as effective dates approach — amendments and updates are common — and whether new tech filings keep adding to the Seattle-area total through the fall.

Data source: Layoff Atlas. Figures current as of October 8, 2026.