Employers' mass layoffs hit record high

Setting many unfortunate records, the nation's employers ended a bad year with a bad quarter in 2008, making many deep slashes in their workforces, the Labor Department reported yesterday.

The report charts mass layoffs - those involving 50 or more people in a month.

New Jersey, along with seven other states, earned the unfortunate distinction of having a record number of people lose jobs in mass layoffs.

In the fourth quarter, 508,859 workers nationally lost their jobs in 3,140 mass layoffs - record highs since the data began being collected in 1995.

The number of mass layoffs for the year also reached a record high with 7,818 events reported. Nearly 1.4 million lost their jobs - the highest number since 2001.

The report tracks reasons for mass layoffs. Some - the end of seasonal work - don't change much year to year.

But in the fourth quarter of 2008, the number of mass layoffs due to changes in business demand - the largest category - soared to 1,387, affecting 207,609 people, up from 613 affecting nearly 84,000 in 2007.

Mass layoffs due to financial issues such as bankruptcy and cost-cutting also more than doubled to 300, affecting 65,034, from 124 affecting 24,652 in 2007's final quarter.

Although the two categories are related, the Labor Department distinguishes between mass layoffs due to slack business conditions and those more related to financial statistics, such as laying off workers to increase profitability.

In the fourth quarter, 13 industry sectors had record highs. Among them were construction, manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade, real estate, educational services, health care and social assistance, and arts, entertainment and recreation.

"New Jersey is certainly feeling the pain of this employment recession," said Christopher Biddle, spokesman for the New Jersey Business and Industry Association.

Mass layoffs caused 49,215 New Jersey workers to lose their jobs in 2008 - the highest since 1995 - in 232 reductions, the highest number since 2002, the report said.

New Jersey lost 60,000 jobs in 2008 - the largest cutback in a single year since 1991, according to Biddle.

He said that New Jersey was particularly hit by the meltdown in the financial sector. "We have more than our fair share of employers in that group."

In the fourth quarter, New Jersey had 73 mass layoffs with 12,525 out of work as a result, up from 54 mass layoffs affecting 9,257 in 2007's final quarter.

The number of mass layoffs also grew in Pennsylvania to 183 affecting 23,245 people, from 78 affecting 10,829 in the final quarter of 2007.