Week Ahead: November 29 Brings 5,832 Scheduled Layoffs

The week of November 29 is shaping up as one of the busiest layoff weeks left on the 2026 calendar. According to the latest WARN data tracked by Layoff Atlas, 5,832 workers are scheduled to be affected that week, making it the third-heaviest upcoming week in the current window.

That puts the final week of November just behind two even larger weeks: November 15, with 7,781 workers scheduled, and November 22, with 6,527. Together, the six weeks on the current calendar account for 35,222 scheduled workers, more than half of the 66,156 workers in the full 90-day notice window.

Where November 29 sits on the calendar

Here is how the upcoming weeks compare, by reported workers with effective dates in each week:

• October 25: 5,206 workers
• November 1: 4,565 workers
• November 8: 5,311 workers
• November 15: 7,781 workers
• November 22: 6,527 workers
• November 29: 5,832 workers

November 29 is not the heaviest week, but it is no quiet week either. At 5,832 workers, it sits just below the six-week average of about 5,870, and well above the lightest week on the calendar, November 1, at 4,565. It is the week after Thanksgiving, when the holiday shopping season is fully under way, and it closes out a November in which every single week carries more than 4,500 scheduled workers.

Layoff timing tends to cluster: four of the six upcoming weeks exceed 5,200 workers, and the two heaviest weeks, November 15 and November 22, sit back to back.

The national picture behind the week

The November 29 figure comes from a national registry that currently holds 704 WARN notices covering 66,156 reported workers over a 90-day notice window. Another 33 notices carry no worker count, so the true total is somewhat higher than the headline number.

Two states continue to dominate the national totals. Washington leads with 17,073 reported workers, followed by California with 14,224. Illinois (4,626), Texas (3,652), and Ohio (3,180) round out the top five. Washington and California alone account for roughly 47 percent of all reported workers in the window, a concentration that has held for weeks and reflects both the size of those states' economies and the completeness of their WARN reporting.

That concentration matters when reading any single week's number: a week can look heavy because of a handful of large filings in one or two states, or light because a state's filings have not yet been published. Coverage and reporting rules still vary by state.

What the recent filings show

The newest filings on the registry illustrate how far ahead these dates are set. Starbucks filed a 135-worker notice in Seatac, Washington, effective December 31, 2026. Foster filed two North Carolina closures, 169 workers in Winston-Salem and 12 in Greenville, both effective March 5, 2027. DSquared Hospitality filed an 83-worker closure in Bellevue, Washington, effective December 20, 2026, and The Andersons filed a 64-worker closure in Montgomery, Alabama, effective December 2, 2026.

These are the kinds of filings that build the calendar weeks in advance. A notice filed in October can set an effective date in December, January, or even March, which is why the November 29 week already has a firm total more than a month before it arrives, and why that total can still grow as new notices are published.

How to read the November 29 number

Three cautions apply to this week's figure, as they do to every WARN total.

First, these are reported plans, not confirmed job losses. A WARN notice records an employer's plan at the time of filing. Plans can change: a layoff can be postponed, reduced, or cancelled, and workers can be transferred or recalled. The number describes what employers have announced, not a final count of people who lost jobs.

Second, worker totals exclude notices with unavailable counts. Thirty-three notices in the current window carry no worker number, so every total here, including the 5,832 for November 29, is a floor rather than a complete count.

Third, WARN coverage is not a census of layoffs. The law generally applies to employers with 100 or more full-time workers, and only to layoffs that meet size thresholds. Smaller layoffs, and layoffs at smaller employers, never appear in these figures at all.

What to watch next

Two things will move the November 29 total before the week arrives: new notices with late-November effective dates will add workers to it, and existing notices could be amended, shifting some workers in or out.

The broader trend to watch is whether the late-November cluster holds. If the November 15 and November 22 weeks stay at the top of the calendar and November 29 stays close behind, the final stretch of 2026 will end as one of the heaviest layoff periods in the current window, with more than 20,000 workers scheduled across those three weeks alone.

For workers, the practical takeaway is timing. A WARN notice is advance warning by design, and the weeks between a notice and its effective date are when unemployment claims, retraining options, and job searches can start. State Rapid Response teams offer free help during exactly that window, and they are worth contacting as soon as a notice appears, not after the effective date passes.

Data source: Layoff Atlas