California gets a layoff warning

If you’ve been hearing rumblings of more than the usual number of layoffs statewide, your economic antenna is dialed in: The number of California workers hit with layoff warnings is up 30 percent in a year.California’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act requires employers to inform the state of planned layoffs, facility closures or relocations at least 60 days in advance. Tracking the so-called “WARN” filings is not a perfect science as some warnings are just that — possibilities that aren’t fulfilled. But filing trends my trusty spreadsheet unearthed do hint at how bosses are feeling about their staffing and business prospects.In the eight months ended in February, California employers filed 509 warnings affecting 48,831 workers. Compare that with the same period in fiscal 2018, and you find 21 percent more filings hitting 30 percent more workers.This’s quite a reversal for bosses. Fiscal 2018’s filings were down 2 percent in a year as the number of workers hit by planned layoffs also fell by 2 percent. In 2017, filings fell 10 percent and impacted workers dropped by 13 percent.

The economy is flat, out here, basically no growth at the moment.