The layoff calendar gets quiet after Thanksgiving. The week starting December 9 has 1,705 workers scheduled in WARN notices on Layoff Atlas, making it the lightest of the next six weeks — and less than a fifth of the heaviest week in the same stretch.
That contrast is the story of the next six weeks. The calendar peaks in late November, then falls sharply and stays low into mid-December. None of this is a forecast of what will actually happen: these are reported plans in filed notices, not confirmed job losses, and the numbers move as new notices arrive and old ones roll out of the window.
The next six weeks at a glance
Layoff Atlas's current weekly totals, by effective date, are:
- Week of November 4: 3,224 workers
- Week of November 11: 6,224 workers
- Week of November 18: 5,939 workers
- Week of November 25: 9,858 workers
- Week of December 2: 1,795 workers
- Week of December 9: 1,705 workers
Together, the six weeks total 28,745 workers. The week of November 25 alone accounts for about 34 percent of that total, while the week of December 9 accounts for about 6 percent. The two December weeks combined — 3,500 workers — are barely more than a third of the November 25 week on its own.
The shape matters more than any single week. Three consecutive weeks above 5,900 workers run from November 11 through November 25, then the calendar drops by more than 8,000 workers in a single step, from 9,858 to 1,795. A drop that steep usually means the big scheduled actions are concentrated before the end of November, not spread evenly into December — though new filings can still fill in the December weeks as their effective dates approach.
What the lighter weeks do and do not mean
A light week on the calendar is not the same as a quiet week for workers. It means only that few filed notices currently carry effective dates in that week. Notices filed in the coming weeks can still land there, and some employers file with short lead times. The December 9 figure should be read as a snapshot of what is scheduled now, not a prediction that little will happen then.
It is also worth noting what sits just outside this window. The heaviest single effective dates in recent filings cluster at the end of the year — December 31 alone carries several large notices, including a 634-worker Philadelphia filing and a 121-worker Washington filing. Those year-end dates fall outside the six-week view, so the quiet December weeks should not be mistaken for a quiet December overall.
The national picture behind the calendar
The weekly figures sit inside a 90-day notice window that currently holds 654 notices covering 62,051 reported workers, with 26 counts unavailable. The data was last updated on November 3, 2026.
California and Washington continue to dominate the national total, with 17,995 and 17,225 workers respectively. Illinois (3,649), Texas (2,863), and Maryland (2,395) round out the top five states. Together, California and Washington account for more than half of all reported workers in the window — a concentration that has held for weeks, driven by a small number of very large filings rather than by broad activity across many employers.
That concentration is a useful caution when reading the weekly totals. A single large filing can move a whole week. The November 25 peak, for example, is not necessarily evidence of a broad wave; it may reflect a handful of large notices sharing nearby effective dates. The weekly totals describe when reported plans take effect, not how many employers are cutting.
How to use this calendar
For workers, the practical takeaway is timing. If your notice carries an effective date in the November 25 week, you are part of the largest scheduled cohort in the near term, and support services — unemployment offices, rapid-response teams, and job-search programs — will be busiest then. If your effective date falls in the December 9 week, the cohort is smaller, but that does not change your individual timeline: your notice period, benefits, and filing deadlines are set by your own notice, not by the weekly total.
For everyone else reading the numbers, the discipline is the same every week: compare like with like. Weekly totals shift as the 90-day window rolls forward, so a week that looks light today may look different in two weeks, and a week that looks heavy today may shrink as notices are withdrawn or amended. The trend across several weeks is more informative than any one week's figure.
The December 9 week is, for now, the calmest point on a calendar that peaks three weeks earlier. Whether it stays that way depends on the filings still to come.
Data source: Layoff Atlas
