Week Ahead: November 22 Brings 6,527 Scheduled Layoffs, the Second-Heaviest Week on the Calendar
The week of November 22 is shaping up to be the second-heaviest layoff week on the current WARN calendar. Notices tracked by Layoff Atlas show 6,527 workers with effective dates falling in that week, behind only the week of November 15, which leads the calendar at 7,781 workers.
That is a large number for a single week, and it arrives in a stretch of the calendar where every week is heavy. Across the six weeks from October 25 through November 29, employers have reported 35,222 workers scheduled for layoffs. The November 22 week alone accounts for nearly one in five of them.
As with every figure in this article, these are reported plans, not confirmed job losses. WARN notices are advance notifications of qualifying mass layoffs and plant closures, filed with state labor agencies. They describe what employers said they planned, on the dates they gave — plans can change, dates can move, and some filings are later postponed or cancelled.
The six weeks ahead, week by week
Here is the current calendar, by effective week, as tracked on October 25:
- 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 — the heaviest week on the calendar
- Week of November 22: 6,527 workers — the second-heaviest week
- Week of November 29: 5,832 workers
Two things stand out. First, there is no quiet week in this stretch: even the lightest week, November 1, carries 4,565 scheduled layoffs. Second, the weight is concentrated in the middle. The November 15 and November 22 weeks together account for 14,308 workers, about 41 percent of the six-week total.
Where the national numbers stand
The week-by-week calendar sits inside a larger national picture. In the current 90-day notice window, Layoff Atlas tracks 704 notices covering 66,156 reported workers, with 33 notices where no worker count was available. Those totals were last updated on October 24, 2026.
The states with the most reported workers in the window are Washington (17,073), California (14,224), Illinois (4,626), Texas (3,652), and Ohio (3,180). Washington and California together account for roughly 47 percent of all reported workers — a concentration that has held for weeks, and one reason national totals can move sharply when a single large filing lands in either state.
It is worth remembering what these totals leave out. Worker totals exclude the 33 notices with unavailable counts, so the true number of workers named in filings is higher than 66,156 by an unknown amount. Coverage also varies by state: some states publish WARN notices promptly and completely, others publish little or nothing, and missing coverage is not the same as zero layoffs.
What a "week of November 22" total actually means
A week total like 6,527 is a sum of effective dates, not notice dates. That distinction matters. The notice date is when an employer filed; the effective date is when the layoffs are scheduled to take effect. A worker counted in the November 22 week may have been notified weeks or months earlier.
That is also why a heavy week does not necessarily mean a bad week for new announcements. Some of the filings behind the November 22 total were made in September or earlier, and have simply been sitting on the calendar. Conversely, a week with a small total today can grow as new notices arrive with effective dates in that week.
For workers, the useful question about any heavy week is narrower than the headline number: is my employer on the list, what date does my notice give, and what happens on that date? A WARN notice should name the employer, the site, the number of affected workers, and the expected date or dates. If any of that is unclear, the state labor agency that received the filing is the next place to check — and workers should keep a copy of their own notice, since the details in it govern their individual timeline.
What to watch next
The November 15 week comes first, and it will be the first test of whether the calendar holds: if a large share of its 7,781 scheduled layoffs take effect as filed, the November 22 week follows immediately behind it, with no breather in between. Together the two weeks will show whether this autumn's heavy calendar is a genuine wave of effective layoffs or a stack of plans that partly slip, shrink, or get pushed into December.
New notices will also keep reshaping the picture. The calendar above reflects notices tracked as of October 25; filings made this week with November or December effective dates will add to it, and postponements will subtract from it. The week totals are a snapshot, not a forecast — useful for seeing where the weight sits, not for predicting exactly how many people will lose their jobs in any given week.
For now, the shape of the autumn is clear: a six-week run with no light week, a peak on November 15, and a second peak one week later on November 22, carrying 6,527 reported workers into a week that includes Thanksgiving.
Data source: Layoff Atlas
