PLEASE NOTE: Since the publication of this e-Newsletter, data for October 2010 have been revised. See the current issue of the LMI e-Newsletter.

Monthly release schedule   |   Data for the current month's release

Historical data are available online in the LaborMarketInfo "Data Library".

In the second quarter (April-June) of 2010, California employers reported 522 mass layoff events that resulted in the separation of 102,085 workers from their jobs for at least 31 days. This is a decrease of 282 mass layoff events and 41,228 separations compared to the second quarter of 2009. California's total number of 522 mass layoff events was 28 percent of the nation's 1,851 reported layoff events and the 102,085 separations were 30 percent of the nation's 338,064 reported separations. The most notable job losses were in 'Manufacturing', 'Construction,' and 'Retail Trade.'

Extended mass layoffs that involve the movement of work within the same company or to a different company, whether domestic or outside of the United States, occurred in 1 percent of the non-seasonal layoff events, which resulted in 271 worker separations. This is a decrease of 2 percent of events as reported in the second quarter of 2009 with a decrease of 6,071 separations.

Other significant trends include:

• Of the employers who anticipated recalling workers, 51 percent expected to extend the offer to all affected workers. This recall rate is higher than the previous year's rate of 24 percent.



• Permanent worksite closures occurred in 10 percent of all events and affected 14,232 workers. Although this is an increase of 3 percent of events from the 7 percent in the second quarter of 2009, the layoffs resulted in 1,380 fewer separations.

The most common reasons given for the verified layoffs are as follows:

• Sixteen percent of the employers reported layoffs due to "Seasonal," as the reason for layoffs that resulted in 16,752 separations.



• Fifteen percent of employers reported layoffs due to "slack work/ insufficient demand/ non-seasonal business slow down," which resulted in 15,631 separations.



• Thirteen percent of the employers reported layoffs due to "Contract completion" as the reason for layoffs that resulted in 13,734 separations.



• Nineteen percent of employers reported layoffs due to internal company restructuring, which includes "bankruptcy," "business ownership change," "financial difficulty," and/or "reorganization." These restructurings resulted in 19,390 separations.



• Employers did not provide a reason for 15 percent of the layoffs, a total of 14,807 separations.

The California Employment Development Department's (EDD) Labor Market Information Division (LMID) operates the Mass Layoff Statistics Program through a cooperative agreement with the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. You can access MLS data on our Web site. State data may not match BLS published data due to the dynamic nature of State MLS databases.

The Quarterly Census of Employment & Wages (QCEW) Program data for the first quarter of 2010 are now available on the Labor Market Information Division's Website at: www.labormarketinfo.edd.ca.gov/qcew/cew-select.asp. These data represent employment and wage information that employers reported for the first quarter (January thru March) of 2010. A year-over comparison of the first quarter in 2009 and 2010 reveal the following trends:

Year-to-Year Trends between 2009 and 2010

• Employment statewide decreased 3.9 percent between 2009 and 2010.



• Total Quarterly Wages dropped 2.8 percent statewide from 2009 to 2010.



• The total number of first quarter reporting establishments increased by 4.3 percent between 2009 and 2010.

Industries Experiencing the Greatest Year-Over Percentage Growth in Employment

• The Federal Government saw an average growth in employment of approximately 4.4 percent.



• The Education and Health Services industry experienced an average employment growth of roughly 1.7 percent.

Industries Experiencing the Greatest Percentage of Decline in Employment Year-Over

• Average employment in the Construction industry decreased by approximately 16.6 percent.



• The Manufacturing industry average employment dropped by approximately 7.4 percent.



• The Financial Activities industry average employment declined by approximately 6.6 percent.

In 1621, the pilgrims held a three-day feast to celebrate their bountiful harvest. Many regard this celebration as the nation's first Thanksgiving. This year, an estimated 117 million households will enjoy this sumptuous holiday. Compared to 2009, the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) anticipates a 2 percent drop in the number of turkeys raised this year. However, with an expected 242 million turkeys raised nationwide, 735 million pounds of cranberries, 1.9 billion pounds of sweet potatoes, 931 million pounds of pumpkins, 2.2 billion bushels of wheat (for the bread, rolls and pie crust) and 736,680 tons of snap green beans, it may take three days to finish all of the leftovers.

The most recent information by the NASS indicates California raised 15 million turkeys in 2010 or 6 percent of the national total. California's 2009 annual average Quarterly Census of Employment of Wages reported 40 establishments engaged in turkey production with a total of $14,419,806 paid in total wages.

According to the U. S. Census Bureau, a typical American consumed 13.8 pounds of turkey and 5.2 pounds of sweet potatoes during 2007, with a hearty helping devoured during the Thanksgiving holiday. With a predicted $4.1 billion in sales, turkeys will exceed the sum of sales from products such as barley, oats, sorghum and peanuts this year. Thanksgiving has even influenced the name of places where we live such as Turkey, North Carolina; Turkey, Texas; and Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania.

The Labor Market Information Division now posts the latest information on online job advertisements for California from The Conference Board Help Wanted OnLine™ Data Series (HWOL). HWOL also provides a monthly measure of labor demand at the national, regional, state, and metropolitan levels.

There was a modest gain in advertised vacancies for the four regions of the United States. The West had the largest gain of 47,800 with California being the largest contributor of 32,100. There were a total of 361,700 advertisements reported for California for October 2010. Nationally, there are 4,404,800 seasonally adjusted advertised vacancies for October 2010 an increase of 113,700 from September 2010.

The Bay Area had the largest percentage increase (51 percent) in job advertisements of any region from October 2009 to October 2010. The region had the second-highest increase (9 percent) in ads from September 2010 to October 2010.

The Central Coast and San Joaquin regions saw the smallest increases in job advertisements from September 2010 to October 2010 (2 and 3 percent, respectively).

Job advertisements in Southern California improved markedly with an overall increase of 32 percent from October 2009 to October 2010, while data from October 2008 to October 2009 showed a sharp drop (19 percent).

The Southern Border and Greater Sacramento regions also saw a marked increase (28 and 35 percent respectively) from October 2009 to October 2010. This was significant given that the Southern Border had seen a 22 percent decrease and Greater Sacramento a 24 percent decrease from October 2008 to October 2009.

The EDD's Labor Market Information Division (LMID) recently published six new Occupational Guides (Aerospace Engineers; Energy Auditors; Medical and Clinical Laboratory Technicians; Roofers; Urban and Regional Planners; and Wind Turbine Service Technicians *). Four of the occupations (Energy Auditors; Roofers; Urban and Regional Planners; and Wind Turbine Service Technicians*) contain descriptions regarding their role in the emerging "Green" Economy and are located in the Green Occupational Guides section of Understanding the "Green" Economy. These occupations perform job duties or contain aspects that are related to LMID's GREEN definition. All of these new guides are located in the California Occupational Guides section of EDD's LMI Web site.

* Local data are unavailable for Wind Turbine Service Technicians because it is a new Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) code as of 2010.

We have released the final local area 2008-2018 Projections of Employment by Industry and Occupation for:

     El Dorado, Sacramento, Placer and Yolo Counties (combined)
     Kern County
     Marin, San Francisco and San Mateo Counties (combined)
     Monterey County
     Orange County
     Tulare County
     Ventura County

Available data files include: Industry data table and narrative, Occupation data table and narrative, and tables of the "Fastest Growing Occupations" and the "Occupations With the Most Job Openings."