WARN Act and Layoffs in Agriculture — What Farm and Food Workers Should Know

The largest recent layoff filing in the US WARN system is not from a tech company or a factory. It is from a farm. Gebbers Farms of Brewster, Washington filed a WARN notice covering 3,445 workers, effective November 25, 2026 — about 5.6% of every worker in the current 90-day WARN window. Agriculture and food processing keep producing some of the biggest filings in the registry, even though most farm layoffs never appear in the data.

As of November 14, 2026, Layoff Atlas tracks 681 notices covering 61,493 reported workers in the 90-day window. California leads the state ranking with 22,043 reported workers, followed by Washington with 17,333. The weeks ahead are heavy: 7,359 workers are scheduled effective the week of November 14, 6,925 the week of November 21, and 6,063 the week of November 28. Gebbers alone is about half of that November 21 week.

The filings behind the story

Gebbers Farms, Brewster, Washington — 3,445 workers. Notice September 25, 2026, effective November 25, 2026, via the Washington Employment Security Department. The telling detail: Gebbers filed a near-identical notice a year earlier — 3,465 workers, effective November 25, 2025. Same date, nearly the same headcount. That is a harvest cycle, not a sudden crisis.
The Neil Jones Food Company (dba Tomatek), Firebaugh, California — 116 workers. Notice October 14, 2026, effective December 14, 2026, classified as temporary by the California EDD. The plant processes fresh-pack tomatoes, and the California processing-tomato harvest runs from late summer into fall. A December effective date, just after harvest ends, fits the season.
Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream, Howard County, Maryland — 803 workers. Notice October 19, 2026, effective December 20, 2026, classified as temporary by the Maryland Department of Labor.

Together these three filings cover 4,364 workers — all seasonal stories, all in the registry because the employers were large enough to trip the WARN thresholds.

Why most farm layoffs never appear in WARN data

Four features of the law explain the quiet.

The 100-employee threshold. Federal WARN applies only to employers with 100 or more full-time employees. Most farms are smaller than that, so their layoffs never trigger a filing — no matter how many seasonal workers are let go.

Part-time workers do not count toward the threshold. A worker averaging under 20 hours a week, or employed under 6 of the last 12 months, is part-time for threshold purposes. Harvest crews hired for a few weeks or months often fall into that category.

The temporary-project exception. WARN does not require notice when a closing is due to the completion of a particular project or undertaking (29 U.S.C. 2103(1)). An employer can argue that the end of a harvest season is exactly that. Whether it applies is fact-specific, but many end-of-season reductions are never filed because of it.

Guest-worker programs. H-2A workers are admitted for temporary seasonal agricultural jobs. When the season ends, the job ends by design, and that is generally not treated as a WARN "employment loss." The workers most exposed to seasonal layoffs are often the ones the statute reaches least.

The result is a blind spot: the registry captures the biggest, most formal farm employers and misses the rest. Missing coverage is not zero layoffs.

What the seasonal pattern means for the numbers

First, one farm can move a state's ranking. Washington sits second nationally with 17,333 reported workers in the 90-day window, and Gebbers' 3,445 accounts for about a fifth of that. A state ranking that looks like a regional downturn can be one employer's harvest calendar. Second, effective dates cluster at the end of the season — November 25, December 14, December 20. That is why the late-November weeks are the heaviest on the calendar — a spike in November layoffs can signal winter, not a weakening economy.

These are reported plans, not confirmed job losses: workers can be rehired, dates can shift, and some notices are withdrawn.

What farm and food workers should know

You are owed 60 days' notice if the thresholds are met — your employer has 100+ full-time employees, and the layoff is a plant closing of 50+ workers, a mass layoff of 500+, or 50–499 workers if that is at least a third of the site's workforce.
State mini-WARN laws can cover smaller employers. California's Cal-WARN law applies at 75 employees rather than 100, which is why California's data captures farm and food filings invisible in federal-only states.
A "temporary" label does not guarantee recall. Both the Neil Jones and Dreyer's filings are classified as temporary — but workers should still confirm their status, severance terms, and unemployment eligibility with the employer and the state agency.
Check whether your employer filed. State labor agencies publish WARN lists, and Layoff Atlas tracks filings with notice and effective dates. If no notice was filed and you believe one was owed, the remedy under the Act is back pay and benefits for up to 60 days.

Agriculture will keep producing the registry's biggest single filings, because a harvest crew is one of the few workforces large and formal enough to trip the federal thresholds. The rest of the sector's layoffs happen off the books — which is why a 3,445-worker farm notice says more about the calendar than about a crisis.

Data source: Layoff Atlas