Week Ahead: November 15 Is the Heaviest Upcoming Layoff Week, With 7,781 Workers Scheduled
The heaviest layoff week on the current WARN calendar is now three weeks away. According to the latest figures on Layoff Atlas, 7,781 workers are scheduled to be affected effective the week of November 15, 2026 — more than in any other week in the next six weeks, and more than double the lightest week in that stretch.
That single week accounts for about 22 percent of all workers scheduled across the six-week window, which totals 35,222. It is also equal to roughly 12 percent of the 66,156 reported workers in the full 90-day notice window tracked by the registry. One week, in other words, carries an outsized share of the near-term layoff calendar.
The six-week calendar
Here is how the upcoming weeks compare, by workers with a published effective date in each week:
- Week of October 25: 5,206 workers
- Week of November 1: 4,565 workers
- Week of November 8: 5,311 workers
- Week of November 15: 7,781 workers
- Week of November 22: 6,527 workers
- Week of November 29: 5,832 workers
The pattern is a climb, not a spike out of nowhere. The calendar rises from 5,206 this week to 5,311 in the week of November 8, then jumps by 2,470 workers to reach 7,781 in the week of November 15. After that peak, the numbers ease but stay high: 6,527 in the week of November 22 and 5,832 in the week of November 29. Every week in the window is heavy by ordinary standards; the November 15 week is simply the heaviest.
It is worth noting what changed since earlier in October. In mid-October, the week of November 15 was already the heaviest upcoming week, at around 7,644 workers. It has since edged up to 7,781 as new notices arrived and effective dates were confirmed. The ranking did not change, but the total grew.
What the national picture looks like
The registry currently tracks 704 notices affecting 66,156 reported workers over a 90-day notice window, with 33 counts unavailable. Those figures were last updated on October 24, 2026.
Two states dominate the national total. Washington accounts for 17,073 reported workers and California for 14,224. Together, they represent nearly half of all reported workers in the window. Illinois follows with 4,626, then Texas with 3,652 and Ohio with 3,180. That concentration matters when reading any single week: a heavy national week is usually the sum of filings across many states and employers, not one company's decision.
That is an important distinction. A weekly total is an aggregation by effective date. It adds up every WARN filing whose planned effective date falls in that week, whatever the employer, industry, or state. A heavy week does not mean a single mass layoff; it means many separate planned actions happen to land in the same week.
How to read the November 15 figure
Three cautions apply to this number, as they do to every figure in this article.
First, these are reported plans, not confirmed job losses. WARN notices describe what employers told state agencies they plan to do. Plans can be postponed, reduced, or cancelled, and some workers counted in a notice may be recalled or reassigned. The registry tracks notices, not final outcomes.
Second, the effective date is not the notice date. A notice filed in September or October can have an effective date in November, because the WARN Act generally requires 60 days' notice for covered layoffs. The November 15 week therefore reflects decisions made weeks ago, surfacing now as their effective dates approach.
Third, the totals exclude unavailable counts. Thirty-three notices in the 90-day window have no worker count attached, so the true number of workers covered by filed notices is higher than 66,156 — by an unknown amount. The same applies to the weekly totals: a week with several uncounted notices will look lighter than it really is. Missing coverage is not the same as zero layoffs.
What to watch as November 15 approaches
As the week gets closer, two things are worth watching. One is whether the November 15 total keeps rising as late filings are published — the pattern so far this month suggests it may. The other is whether the weeks around it move in the same direction. If November 22 and November 29 also climb, the peak will look less like a single-week event and more like a sustained late-November plateau.
For workers, the practical point is timing. If your employer's notice names an effective date in the week of November 15, the weeks between now and then are the window for the steps that matter most: confirming the details of the notice with your employer or union representative, checking unemployment eligibility and filing requirements in your state, and contacting your state's Rapid Response team, which provides free help to workers affected by layoffs. Those services are easiest to use before the effective date arrives.
The November 15 week will not be the last heavy week on the calendar, and it may not stay at 7,781. But as of today, it is the clear peak of the next six weeks — the week to watch, and the week to prepare for.
Data source: Layoff Atlas
