California and Washington Now Account for 64% of Reported Layoff Plans

Two states now dominate America's reported layoff plans. In the current 90-day window of WARN notices tracked by Layoff Atlas, California accounts for 22,043 reported workers and Washington for 17,333 — 39,376 workers between them, or 64% of the 61,284 reported workers nationwide. The other 49 jurisdictions share the remaining 36%.

That is a sharp change from a month ago. On October 19, the same two states accounted for 31,897 of 66,487 reported workers — 48%. In less than four weeks, their combined share has risen by 16 percentage points. The story of that shift is mostly a California story, and it says as much about how WARN data works as it does about layoffs themselves.

The gap below the top two

The distance between second place and third place is the most striking part of the ranking. After Washington's 17,333, the next states are Virginia at 2,556, Maryland at 2,522 and Texas at 2,419. Those three combined — 7,497 workers — are under a fifth of California and Washington's combined total, and California alone, at 22,043, is nearly three times all three put together.

California alone is 36% of the national total; Washington alone is 28%. No other state reaches even 5%.

How the picture changed

Three things moved at once between October 19 and today:

• California's reported-worker figure rose from 15,042 to 22,043 — up 7,001, or about 47%.
• Washington's figure barely moved, from 16,855 to 17,333 — up about 3%.
• The national window total fell from 66,487 to 61,284 — down about 8%, as older filings aged out of the 90-day window.

So the concentration rose for two reasons at the same time: California's number grew, and the national total shrank. Both matter. A 90-day window is a moving picture — every day, filings from three months ago drop out and new ones enter. When the total shrinks, any state that holds its numbers gains share automatically.

What is inside California's number

California's registry page shows the scale behind the headline figure: 1,275 notices reporting 69,857 workers so far in 2026, and 1,349 official filings reporting 74,120 workers over the last 365 days. The newest official notice is dated November 9, 2026, and 176 notices have future effective dates.

The largest recent California filings still inside the window include Covenant Aviation Security's 1,279-worker San Francisco filing (effective November 30), Wright Tree Service's 190 workers across six closure sites (effective November 9), National Distribution Centers' 167-worker Perris closure (effective January 4, 2027), the Ellison Institute's 88-worker Los Angeles layoff (effective January 3, 2027), Blue Shield of California's 54 workers across eight sites (effective January 12, 2027) and ServiceNow's 62 workers across two sites.

Those named filings add up to about 1,840 workers — less than a tenth of California's 22,043. The rest comes from the accumulation of hundreds of smaller filings, not from a single event. That is the normal shape of California's WARN data: many notices, few of them individually huge.

What is inside Washington's number

Washington's page tells a steadier story: 136 notices reporting 28,822 workers so far in 2026, and 151 official filings reporting 29,654 workers over the last 365 days. The newest official notice is dated November 4, 2026, and 42 notices have future effective dates.

The anchor of Washington's total is Gebbers Farms' 3,445-worker filing, reported in early October and still inside the 90-day window. Smaller recent filings, such as DSquared Hospitality's 83-worker Bellevue closure (effective December 20), add to it. Unlike California, Washington's figure has barely moved in a month — the concentration story this time is not a Washington surge.

What the concentration does — and does not — mean

It does not mean 64% of all US layoffs happen in California and Washington. WARN figures are reported plans, not confirmed job losses, and coverage varies sharply by state. Both California and Washington have strong reporting: California's Cal-WARN law covers more employers than the federal law, and Washington's Employment Security Department publishes its notices consistently. States with weaker reporting or no public feed look quieter than they are, so their absence from the top of the ranking is not evidence of no layoffs.

Twenty-nine worker counts in the current window are unavailable and excluded from the totals, which can also tilt state figures.

What the concentration does show is where the currently visible layoff activity sits. And the coming weeks will test whether it holds: the calendar shows 7,371 workers effective in the week of November 13, 7,181 in the week of November 20, 5,991 in the week of November 27, 1,997 in the week of December 4, 3,034 in the week of December 11 and 5,003 in the week of December 18. If the new filings keep landing in California and Washington, the two-state share will stay high; if they spread out, it will fall back.

How to read this

State rankings in WARN data move for mechanical reasons as well as economic ones — filings aging out of the window, a single large filing landing, a state's feed updating. The 64% figure is a snapshot of the current window, not a verdict on the whole economy. But as a snapshot, it is unusually lopsided: two states hold nearly two-thirds of every reported layoff plan in the country right now.

Data source: Layoff Atlas