How Many People Are Fired or Laid Off Each Year in the United States? How Many People Are Fired Each Day in the United States?
(This article has been updated with data from the month of
February 2017.)
How many people are not working in the U.S.? How many adults are not working in the U.S.? Here!
Hold on... These numbers sound staggering:
An average of 54,549 people were laid off or fired EACH DAY (including weekends and holidays) in 2016. (19,965,000 people in total were laid off or fired in the 366 days of 2016.)
Monthly layoffs & discharges in thousands from the BLS JOLTS survey.
An average of 54,966 people have been laid off or fired each day (including weekends and holidays) in the first two months of 2017. A total of 3,243,000 people have been laid off or fired in the first 59 days of 2017 (through February).
These sound like big numbers, but the 2016 number is the LOWEST number of annual layoffs in the 16 years since 2001.
Where do these numbers come from?
The JOLTS report (Job Openings, Layoffs, and Turnover Survey), published monthly by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) tells us how many layoffs and "discharges" (generally firings for cause) in total were conducted in a given month, though it doesn't differentiate between people laid off due to a business closing, merger, or reduction in force vs. people who were fired for cause. It also doesn't distinguish between people laid off from seasonal jobs (such as construction or Christmas retail jobs) vs. people laid off because the whole company is reducing its work force or closing.
These numbers are available going back to the year 2001. As you can see on the chart below, the numbers of layoffs and discharges increased rapidly during the recession of 2007-2008, but decreased rapidly as well. The number of people being laid off has now been decreasing on a monthly basis since mid 2009. However, even the seasonally adjusted number of layoffs and discharges is volatile, meaning that it goes up and down quite a bit from one month to the next.
Also, when there are more jobs, there are, as a whole, more layoffs, but that didn't hold true in 2016. There were about 2.3 million more jobs in the United States in 2016 vs. 2015, and there were still more layoffs in 2015.
A
Annual Numbers of Layoffs:
Layoffs and discharges annually through 2016 with numbers of month-by-month layoffs for 2017-- compared with numbers of hires:
Layoffs Hires
- 2001: 24,499,000 62,588,000
- 2002: 22,922,000 58,469,000
- 2003: 23,294,000 57,027,000
- 2004: 22,668,000 60,222,000
- 2005: 22,243,000 63,107,000
- 2006: 20,896,000 63,501,000
- 2007: 21,958,000 62,123,000
- 2008: 24,028,000 54,740,000
- 2009: 26,444,000 46,242,000
- 2010: 21,633,000 48,686,000
- 2011: 20,689,000 50,237,000
- 2012: 21,053,000 52,358,000
- 2013: 19,944,000 54,212,000
- 2014: 20,405,000 58,653,000
- 2015: 20,972,000 62,054,000
- 2016: 19,965,000 62,789,000
- Jan 2017: 1,659,000 5,424,000
- Feb 2017: 1,584,000 5,314,000
- 2017 to date: 3,243,000 10,738,000
2016: An average of 172,025 people were HIRED EACH DAY in 2016. An average of 165,647 people left their jobs for any reason EACH DAY in 2016. Therefore, on average, 6,378 MORE people were hired each day in 2016 than left their jobs for any reason in 2016 and the number of jobs went up all year. Do the (simple) math, and we added about 2.3 million jobs in 2016.
As long as we have more people being hired than people leaving their jobs for any reason, the total number of jobs will continue to climb.
What about 2017?
In 2017 to date, 7,119 MORE people have been hired each day in 2017 than left their jobs for any reason each day in 2017. If this pace continues, we will add at about 2.6 million jobs this year.
So far in the early months of 2017:
- An average of 182,000 people were HIRED EACH DAY.
- An average of 174,881 people left their jobs for any reason each day so far in 2017.
- Of those 174,881 who left their jobs each day, an average of 54,966 left their jobs because they were fired or laid off.
- On average, 7,119 MORE people have been hired each day in 2017 than have left their jobs for any reason in 2017.
- 7,119 MORE hires over separations multiplied by 365 days in 2017, and, if this pace continues, we will add about 2.6 million more jobs this year.
- The greatest number of daily net hires over separations for any reason occurred in 2014, when 8,342 more people were hired each day than were separated each day for any reason. (By comparison, in 2009, there were about 14,000 MORE separations every day vs. hires.)
(This article has been updated with data from the month of
February 2017.)
How many people are not working in the U.S.? How many adults are not working in the U.S.? Here!
Hold on... These numbers sound staggering:
An average of 54,549 people were laid off or fired EACH DAY (including weekends and holidays) in 2016. (19,965,000 people in total were laid off or fired in the 366 days of 2016.)
An average of 54,549 people were laid off or fired EACH DAY (including weekends and holidays) in 2016. (19,965,000 people in total were laid off or fired in the 366 days of 2016.)
|
| Monthly layoffs & discharges in thousands from the BLS JOLTS survey. |
An average of 54,966 people have been laid off or fired each day (including weekends and holidays) in the first two months of 2017. A total of 3,243,000 people have been laid off or fired in the first 59 days of 2017 (through February).
These sound like big numbers, but the 2016 number is the LOWEST number of annual layoffs in the 16 years since 2001.
The JOLTS report (Job Openings, Layoffs, and Turnover Survey), published monthly by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) tells us how many layoffs and "discharges" (generally firings for cause) in total were conducted in a given month, though it doesn't differentiate between people laid off due to a business closing, merger, or reduction in force vs. people who were fired for cause. It also doesn't distinguish between people laid off from seasonal jobs (such as construction or Christmas retail jobs) vs. people laid off because the whole company is reducing its work force or closing.
These numbers are available going back to the year 2001. As you can see on the chart below, the numbers of layoffs and discharges increased rapidly during the recession of 2007-2008, but decreased rapidly as well. The number of people being laid off has now been decreasing on a monthly basis since mid 2009. However, even the seasonally adjusted number of layoffs and discharges is volatile, meaning that it goes up and down quite a bit from one month to the next.
Also, when there are more jobs, there are, as a whole, more layoffs, but that didn't hold true in 2016. There were about 2.3 million more jobs in the United States in 2016 vs. 2015, and there were still more layoffs in 2015.
Also, when there are more jobs, there are, as a whole, more layoffs, but that didn't hold true in 2016. There were about 2.3 million more jobs in the United States in 2016 vs. 2015, and there were still more layoffs in 2015.
A
Annual Numbers of Layoffs:
Layoffs and discharges annually through 2016 with numbers of month-by-month layoffs for 2017-- compared with numbers of hires:
2016: An average of 172,025 people were HIRED EACH DAY in 2016. An average of 165,647 people left their jobs for any reason EACH DAY in 2016. Therefore, on average, 6,378 MORE people were hired each day in 2016 than left their jobs for any reason in 2016 and the number of jobs went up all year. Do the (simple) math, and we added about 2.3 million jobs in 2016.
As long as we have more people being hired than people leaving their jobs for any reason, the total number of jobs will continue to climb.
As long as we have more people being hired than people leaving their jobs for any reason, the total number of jobs will continue to climb.
What about 2017?
In 2017 to date, 7,119 MORE people have been hired each day in 2017 than left their jobs for any reason each day in 2017. If this pace continues, we will add at about 2.6 million jobs this year.
In 2017 to date, 7,119 MORE people have been hired each day in 2017 than left their jobs for any reason each day in 2017. If this pace continues, we will add at about 2.6 million jobs this year.
So far in the early months of 2017:
- An average of 182,000 people were HIRED EACH DAY.
- An average of 174,881 people left their jobs for any reason each day so far in 2017.
- Of those 174,881 who left their jobs each day, an average of 54,966 left their jobs because they were fired or laid off.
- On average, 7,119 MORE people have been hired each day in 2017 than have left their jobs for any reason in 2017.
- 7,119 MORE hires over separations multiplied by 365 days in 2017, and, if this pace continues, we will add about 2.6 million more jobs this year.
- The greatest number of daily net hires over separations for any reason occurred in 2014, when 8,342 more people were hired each day than were separated each day for any reason. (By comparison, in 2009, there were about 14,000 MORE separations every day vs. hires.)
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