Week Ahead: November 8 Brings 5,311 Scheduled Layoffs, the Fourth-Heaviest Week on the Calendar
The week of November 8, 2026, has 5,311 workers with layoffs scheduled to take effect, according to current WARN data tracked by Layoff Atlas. It is not the heaviest week on the calendar, but it sits firmly in the upper half: a mid-November step up from the quieter weeks around it, and a reminder that the autumn layoff calendar stays busy well past the end of October.
These are reported plans, not confirmed job losses. WARN notices record what employers told state agencies they intend to do, and plans can change — dates move, counts are revised, and some announced cuts never happen. The figures below should be read with that caveat throughout.
The six-week calendar
Layoff Atlas currently shows the following reported workers by effective 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
Together, the six weeks account for 35,222 reported workers. The November 8 week alone is about 15 percent of that six-week total.
Where November 8 sits
Ranked against the other five weeks, November 8 is the fourth-heaviest. It trails the week of November 15 (7,781 workers, the heaviest week on the calendar), the week of November 22 (6,527), and the week of November 29 (5,832). It runs ahead of the week of October 25 (5,206) and the week of November 1 (4,565).
The comparison with the week before it is the most telling. November 8 is 746 workers above November 1, a rise of about 16 percent week over week. After the lightest week on the calendar, the numbers climb again — and they keep climbing the following week, when November 15 peaks at 7,781. In other words, November 8 is best understood as the ramp into the heaviest stretch of the calendar, not as a one-week spike.
It is also worth noting what November 8 is not. It is not close to the heaviest week: November 15 runs 2,470 workers higher, about 47 percent more. Four of the six weeks on the calendar exceed 5,000 workers.
The national picture behind the week
The week-ahead figures sit inside a 90-day notice window covering 704 WARN notices affecting 66,156 reported workers, with 33 notices carrying no available worker count. Those totals move as new notices are filed and as older ones roll out of the window, so the week-ahead numbers shift from week to week even when no individual employer changes its plans.
By state, Washington leads the current window with 17,073 reported workers, followed by California with 14,224, Illinois with 4,626, Texas with 3,652, and Ohio with 3,180. Washington and California together account for nearly half of all reported workers in the window, which is why national totals can swing sharply on a single large filing in either state.
The newest dated filings on the registry illustrate how far ahead some of these plans are made. Starbucks filed a 135-worker notice for Seatac, Washington, effective December 31, 2026, and Foster filed notices for 169 workers in Winston-Salem and 12 in Greenville, North Carolina, effective March 5, 2027. WARN data is therefore not just a record of what already happened; it is a forward calendar stretching months into the future.
How to read the November 8 number
Three cautions apply to this figure, and to every week-ahead figure like it.
First, the total counts only notices with a reported worker number. The 33 notices in the current window with unavailable counts are excluded from the totals, so the real number of workers covered by filed notices is higher than the published total by an unknown amount.
Second, coverage varies by state. WARN reporting rules, thresholds, and publication practices differ, and some states publish notices faster or more completely than others. A state that looks quiet in the data may simply be slower to publish, not free of layoffs.
Third, effective dates are not the same as notice dates. A worker counted in the November 8 week may have been notified weeks or months earlier. The week-ahead calendar measures when cuts are scheduled to take effect, not when workers first learned about them.
What to watch next
The week to watch after November 8 is November 15, currently the heaviest week on the calendar at 7,781 workers. If filings scheduled for that week hold, it will be the peak of the current calendar — followed by another heavy week, November 22, at 6,527.
For workers, the practical point is simpler. If your employer has filed a WARN notice, the effective week tells you when the change is scheduled, not when you need to act. Unemployment claims, health coverage decisions, and job searches all have their own timelines, and state Rapid Response teams can help before the effective date arrives.
The November 8 figure will move as the registry updates. Check the calendar again next week to see whether it held, grew, or shrank — and whether November 15 is still the peak.
Data source: Layoff Atlas
