December 18 Is the Newest Week on the WARN Calendar — 5,003 Workers Scheduled

A new week has appeared on the WARN layoff calendar. The week of December 18 now shows 5,003 workers with scheduled layoffs, the latest effective week in the Layoff Atlas registry. It extends the visible calendar to six weeks and brings the six-week total to 30,577 workers — roughly half of all the workers in the current 90-day window.

The calendar is a forward-looking record. Every figure below comes from WARN notices — the advance notifications employers file with state labor agencies before qualifying mass layoffs and plant closures. These are reported plans, not confirmed job losses. Some plans change, some get postponed, and some never happen. But the calendar is still the best public view of what employers have already told the states they intend to do.

The six weeks, in order

Here is the calendar as it stands today, November 13, 2026:

• Week of November 13: 7,371 workers — the heaviest week on the calendar, and the current week
• Week of November 20: 7,181 workers
• Week of November 27: 5,991 workers — Thanksgiving week
• Week of December 4: 1,997 workers — the lightest week on the calendar
• Week of December 11: 3,034 workers
• Week of December 18: 5,003 workers — the newest week

The shape is uneven. The two heaviest weeks are the two closest ones, November 13 and November 20, which together account for 14,552 workers — nearly half of the six-week total. Then the numbers step down through Thanksgiving week, fall sharply in early December, and rise again for the week of December 18.

That December rebound is worth noting. After the lightest week of the calendar (December 4, at 1,997 workers), the week of December 18 comes in at two and a half times that figure. The calendar does not wind down smoothly into the holidays. It dips, then climbs again.

November is doing most of the work

Add up the three November weeks — November 13, 20, and 27 — and you get 20,543 workers. The three December weeks — December 4, 11, and 18 — total 10,034. November carries about two-thirds of the six-week load, and December about one-third.

That split is consistent with what the calendar has shown all autumn: the heaviest layoff weeks cluster in mid-to-late November, and December is lighter overall, with the notable exception of the week of December 18. Workers and employers planning around the holidays should read the December 18 figure as a reminder that the year does not end quietly.

The national picture behind the calendar

The six-week calendar sits inside a larger registry. The current 90-day window holds 667 WARN notices covering 61,284 reported workers, with 29 notices where no worker count was available. The registry was last updated on November 12, 2026.

Two states dominate that total. California leads with 22,043 reported workers, followed by Washington with 17,333. Together they account for 39,376 workers — about 64 percent of the national total. Virginia (2,556), Maryland (2,522), and Texas (2,419) round out the top five, but none of them comes close to the two leaders.

That concentration matters: a single large filing in California or Washington can move a whole week's total by hundreds of workers. The week of December 18, like every week on the calendar, is shaped by a handful of large filings more than by a broad spread of small ones.

What the newest week tells us — and what it doesn't

A new week appearing on the calendar is a normal event: as notices are filed, the registry's forward horizon extends. The week of December 18 reaching 5,003 workers on its first appearance is a solid, mid-range debut — heavier than the two weeks before it, lighter than the three November weeks ahead of it.

What it does not tell us is whether more filings will land in that week. Effective dates cluster as notices arrive, and the December 18 total will almost certainly grow as employers file notices in the coming weeks. The 5,003 figure is a floor for that week, not a final count.

It also does not tell us who is affected. The calendar counts workers by effective date, not by industry, occupation, or place. For that detail, the state pages and individual filings are the place to look.

How to use this calendar

If you are a worker, the practical use of the calendar is simple: check whether your employer's name appears in the registry, and check the effective week that applies to you. The 60-day notice period the WARN Act requires is meant to give you time to plan — to file for unemployment, to talk to a Rapid Response team, and to start a job search while you are still employed.

If you are watching the economy, the calendar is a leading indicator with a built-in lag: it shows what employers announced weeks ago, scheduled for weeks ahead. The signal in today's update is that the heaviest weeks are imminent, the lightest week is December 4, and the year closes with a second, smaller wave in the week of December 18.

We will keep tracking the calendar as new weeks appear and existing weeks fill in.

Data source: Layoff Atlas.