Iowa's layoff picture in 2026 is quieter than last year. The state's imported WARN archive now holds 787 non-cancelled notices covering 49,077 reported workers, with 570 direct government records and 217 attributed secondary records. In the last 365 days, Iowa has 105 official filings reporting 3,950 workers, the newest dated September 30, 2026.

These are reported plans, not confirmed job losses. A WARN notice records what an employer told the state it intends to do; some layoffs are postponed, reduced, or cancelled afterward, and coverage varies by state — so the numbers below describe the paper trail, not a final count of people who lost jobs.

The 2026 numbers so far

Iowa has 92 WARN notices covering 3,397 reported workers in 2026, an average of about 37 workers per filing. That is a clear step down from 2025, when the state recorded 153 notices and 6,350 workers, and from 2024, with 121 notices and 6,888 workers. Filings are down roughly 40 percent from last year; reported workers are down about 47 percent.

The longer history puts 2026 in context. The archive runs back through 2015 (38 notices, 5,310 workers), with 2021 the quietest recent year at 17 notices and 2,445 workers. The 2024 total of 6,888 workers is the highest annual figure in the current stretch, and 2026 is tracking well below it — though notices can arrive late, so the total will keep moving.

The largest filings of 2026

The biggest single filing of the year so far is UnityPoint Health in Dubuque: 229 workers, effective February 28, 2027, on a notice dated July 28, 2026. A second UnityPoint record — one worker, also in Dubuque, on the same dates — sits alongside it. The health system dominates Iowa's 2026 leaderboard by a wide margin.

Behind it, the largest filings are:

  • RTX, Cedar Rapids — 107 workers, effective September 20, 2026, on a notice dated August 31, 2026. The record is marked as an amended filing.
  • Carry On Trailer, Missouri Valley — 79 workers, a closure effective November 29, 2026, on a notice dated September 30, 2026 — the newest official notice date in the Iowa archive.
  • Winnebago Industries, Forest City — 67 workers, effective March 26, 2027, on a notice dated August 31, 2026, plus a separate 27-worker Winnebago layoff effective November 30, 2026.
  • People First Sanitation, Sioux City — 54 workers, effective September 25, 2026.
  • Verschoor Meats, Sioux City — 50 workers, a closure effective August 21, 2026.
  • NFI Interactive Logistics, Cedar Rapids — 49 workers, a closure effective September 30, 2026.
  • Wells Fargo, West Des Moines — 158 workers across eight amended filings, ranging from 5 to 47 workers each, with effective dates from September 5, 2026 through January 27, 2027.

Smaller closures include Lund Foods Holdings in Lake Mills (23 workers, effective October 9, 2026) and River Hills Community Center in Centerville and Richland (19 and 5 workers, effective July 31, 2026). Independence Premium Foods in Independence filed twice — 41 workers effective August 9 and 5 on August 31.

What is still on the calendar

Iowa has 9 notices with future effective dates. The most notable cluster is in early 2027: UnityPoint Health's 229 workers in Dubuque on February 28, Winnebago's 67 in Forest City on March 26, and Wells Fargo's 47 in West Des Moines on January 27 — 344 workers across four records already scheduled for next year.

Closer in, Carry On Trailer's 79-worker closure lands November 29, and Winnebago's 27-worker layoff and Wells Fargo's 10-worker amended filing both take effect around November 28–30. The week of November 24 is the heaviest nationally, with 9,300 workers scheduled, so Iowa's late-November dates arrive in the year's busiest stretch.

Iowa in the national picture

Nationally, the Layoff Atlas registry currently shows 667 notices covering 63,168 reported workers in the 90-day window, with 30 counts unavailable, updated November 10, 2026. California leads with 20,982 workers and Washington follows with 17,411; Illinois (3,432), Maryland (2,484), and Virginia (2,473) round out the top five.

Iowa is a mid-sized piece of that picture, with a long, well-documented archive whose 2026 numbers run well below the last two years. The state's official feed is current through September 30, 2026, and none of its 2026 records is missing a worker count — cleaner than many states, where dozens of filings arrive with no count attached.

How to read Iowa's numbers

Three cautions matter. First, several of Iowa's largest 2026 records — the RTX and Wells Fargo filings — are amended filings, which revise earlier notices rather than announcing brand-new layoffs. Second, the same employer can appear many times: Wells Fargo's eight West Des Moines records are separate filings, not one event, and should not be read as a single 158-worker layoff. Third, the archive counts notices, not unique people; a worker named in an amended filing may already have been counted in the original.

What the data does show clearly is direction: fewer filings, fewer workers, and a 2026 total running about half of 2025's. The filings still to come — UnityPoint's 229 in February, Winnebago's 67 in March — mean the story is not finished, but for now Iowa's WARN calendar is lighter than it has been in two years.

Data source: Layoff Atlas.