What a WARN Notice Must Actually Say: The Required Contents of a Layoff Letter

A WARN notice is not just a letter saying layoffs are coming. Under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, it must contain specific information, in writing, at least 60 calendar days before a covered plant closing or mass layoff. When a piece is missing or vague, workers, unions and local officials have less to work with — and the notice itself can be challenged. This is general information, not legal advice; state mini-WARN laws can add requirements on top of the federal floor.

The six things every notice should carry

Federal regulations at 20 CFR 639.7 spell out the contents. A complete notice answers six questions: where is the affected site, with its name and address? Is the action a plant closing or a mass layoff, and is it permanent or temporary? What is the expected date of the first separation, and the schedule if separations are staggered? Which job titles are affected, and how many employees in each classification? Do bumping rights — seniority-based displacement of other workers — exist? And who is the company official to contact, with a telephone number?

Notices to individual workers also carry the worker's name, address and job title, and the date that individual will be separated. Union notices go to the union's chief elected officer with titles and headcounts by classification.

Permanent or temporary matters more than it sounds

The permanence statement is not boilerplate. A temporary layoff expected to last six months or less is treated differently from a permanent closure, but if it stretches beyond six months for reasons not reasonably foreseeable at the outset, notice can become required when the extension becomes foreseeable. For workers, the key questions are simple: does the letter say the job is ending for good, or that work may resume? Does it give a date, or only say cuts "may" happen?

Dates and schedules: one date is rarely the whole story

Larger actions are often phased, so the regulations ask for the first separation date and the schedule for later ones.

Registry data shows why the distinction matters. Layoff Atlas currently lists 704 notices affecting 66,156 reported workers in its 90-day notice window, with 33 counts unavailable. Upcoming effective weeks run from 5,206 workers in the week of October 25 to a peak of 7,781 in the week of November 15. Those totals are built from effective dates, not notice dates, so an October notice can describe December layoffs — as with the recent Starbucks filing for Seatac, Seattle: 135 workers, notice October 23, 2026, effective December 31, 2026.

Job titles and numbers: the part the public data depends on

The title-and-headcount requirement is why WARN filings are such a useful public record: a filing listing "production workers: 40, supervisors: 5" tells a different story from one listing only a total, and it lets agencies plan retraining for the actual occupations affected. It also explains a recurring caveat: worker totals exclude unavailable counts. A record without a headcount is counted as unknown, not zero. The current window's 33 unavailable counts remind readers that these figures are reported plans, not confirmed job losses.

Bumping rights and the contact person

The bumping-rights statement tells workers whether seniority lets them displace a less senior worker elsewhere. That right comes from a contract or policy, not from the WARN Act itself — the Act only requires the employer to say whether such rights exist. The contact person is the most underrated item: it gives workers, the state unit and local officials someone to call when the schedule changes or the notice is unclear. A notice with no named contact fails an explicit regulatory requirement.

What a notice does not have to say

The WARN Act is a notice law, not a payment law. Federal law does not require an employer to promise severance pay in the notice; severance, when it exists, comes from a policy, contract, collective bargaining agreement, separation agreement, or a state severance mandate. Nor must a notice explain the business reason in detail — the regulations require the facts above, not a justification.

What to check when you receive one

Check the notice against the six items: does it name your site and your expected separation date? Does it say whether the action is permanent or temporary? Does it list your job title and the number in your classification? Does it state whether bumping rights exist? Does it name a company official with a telephone number? If an item is missing, keep the letter, note when you received it, and raise the gap with your union representative, your state dislocated worker unit or an employment lawyer.

Why the contents matter beyond one workplace

Without site, date, title and headcount, there would be no state rankings — currently Washington with 17,073 workers, California with 14,224, Illinois with 4,626, Texas with 3,652 and Ohio with 3,180 — and no upcoming-week calendar. The notice's contents are the raw material; the registry only organises them. When a headline cites a WARN number, ask what sits behind it: a dated letter, with a site, a schedule, job titles and a headcount. If those pieces are present, the number can be checked.

Data source: Layoff Atlas