Employers Expect to Rehire Workers who Lost their Jobs this Winter

We’re well into 2011 now.  Yet most of us don’t seem to believe that winter is finally over.  This mental disbelief may have something to do with that storm-mangled tree on your block or that basement that hasn’t really smelled right since January.  Or it may have to do with the fact that this winter, plenty of Americans lost their jobs.

During January, February, and March, employers initiated 1,393 mass layoff events that resulted in the separation of 190,389 workers from their jobs for at least 31 days.  The average number of layoffs per company was 137 workers.

Almost half of these employees have been given hope that their employers plan to rehire them  as soon as possible.  This optimism is much greater than in the six previous years.

The manufacturing and retail trade sectors experienced the largest declines in the numbers of worker separations over the year. From the first quarter of 2010 to the first quarter of 2011, the number of worker separations in manufacturing fell from 60,855 to a series low 37,249.

In retail trade, the number of separations from the first quarter of 2010 to the first quarter of 2011 fell from 53,090 to 25,074.