Week Ahead: November 21 Brings 6,925 Scheduled Layoffs, the Third-Heaviest Week on the Calendar
The week of November 21 is shaping up to be one of the heaviest layoff weeks of the fall. WARN notices tracked by Layoff Atlas currently show 6,925 workers with effective dates in that week, making it the third-heaviest week on the upcoming calendar — behind only the week of November 14 (8,404 workers) and the week of October 31 (7,437 workers).
These are reported plans, not confirmed job losses. A WARN filing is an advance notification of a qualifying mass layoff or plant closure. It does not, by itself, confirm that every listed job will end on the stated date, and filings can be updated, phased, or withdrawn. That caveat applies to every number in this article.
Where the November 21 week sits on the calendar
The six upcoming weeks in the registry currently look like this:
- Week of October 24: 2,759 workers
- Week of October 31: 7,437 workers
- Week of November 7: 4,326 workers
- Week of November 14: 8,404 workers
- Week of November 21: 6,925 workers
- Week of November 28: 5,760 workers
Together, those six weeks account for 35,611 scheduled workers — more than half of the 66,118 workers in the current 90-day notice window. The November 21 week alone represents about one in ten of all workers in that window.
The shape of the calendar matters. After a relatively light week of October 24 (2,759 workers), the schedule jumps sharply for October 31, dips for November 7, then peaks for November 14 before easing through November 21 and November 28. The November 21 week is not the peak, but it is part of a sustained four-week stretch — October 31 through November 21 — in which every week carries more than 6,900 scheduled workers.
A week that runs into Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving falls on Thursday, November 26, 2026, inside the following week bucket (November 28, with 5,760 workers scheduled). The November 21 week therefore lands just before the holiday week, not in it — a distinction worth keeping straight when reading headlines about "Thanksgiving layoffs." Workers whose effective dates fall in the November 21 week face their changes in the days immediately before the holiday, while the November 28 bucket captures the holiday week itself.
That timing also matters for practical reasons. An effective date just before a holiday can compress the window for final paperwork, benefits enrollment, and unemployment claims, since offices and employers may run on holiday schedules. Workers with a November 21-week effective date should check their notice for the exact date and any phased schedule, rather than assuming the whole week behaves the same way.
The national backdrop
The current 90-day window holds 703 notices covering 66,118 reported workers, with 33 worker counts unavailable, according to the registry's latest update on October 24, 2026. The top states by reported workers are Washington (17,073), California (14,224), Illinois (4,626), Texas (3,652), and Ohio (3,180). Washington and California together account for nearly half of all reported workers in the window, a concentration that has held for weeks.
The November 21 figure is a snapshot, not a final count. WARN notices arrive on a rolling basis: new filings can add workers to a week that already looks heavy, and existing filings can be amended. The November 28 bucket, for example, has already moved — from 5,751 to 5,760 workers in the latest update — a small shift that shows the calendar is still being written. The November 21 total should be read the same way: as the best current count, subject to revision as new notices arrive.
What to watch as the week approaches
Three things will decide whether the November 21 week grows, shrinks, or stays where it is. First, new filings: any large notice with a November 21-week effective date would push the total higher, and late-October filings are still arriving daily — the newest official notice in the registry is dated October 23, 2026. Second, amendments: employers sometimes phase or reschedule effective dates, moving workers between weeks. Third, the state mix: whether the week's workers come from a few large filings or many smaller ones changes how concentrated the impact is, and that detail only emerges filing by filing.
For workers, the useful habit is the same one that applies to any WARN week: separate the reported plan from the outcome, check the notice itself for the exact effective date and any phased schedule, and use the advance-notice period to line up unemployment, health coverage, and rapid-response help. A WARN filing starts a clock; it does not answer questions about severance or benefits, which depend on employer policy, contracts, and state programs.
The bottom line
The week of November 21 is not the heaviest week on the calendar, but it does not need to be to matter: 6,925 scheduled workers, the third-heaviest upcoming week, sitting inside a month-long stretch of heavy weeks and landing just before Thanksgiving. As new filings arrive, that number will move — the calendar is a live count, and the November 21 week is one to keep watching.
Data source: Layoff Atlas
