Ranking · WARN Act records
Largest Layoffs by Industry Sector
Compare where recorded WARN Act job loss concentrates by NAICS sector, with filing volume and event size kept visible together.
- 460,348
- Largest sector total
- Other Services
- #1 sector
- 1,433,550
- Workers tracked
Other Services has the largest recorded WARN footprint of any industry
According to WARN Act filings submitted to state workforce agencies, the Other Services sector leads with 460,348 recorded workers across 4,194 filings. Across all 19 tracked sectors, 1,433,550 workers were affected via 9,006 WARN notices.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, these are WARN Act mass-layoff totals grouped by industry using the federal NAICS classification (2-digit sector). Rolling up every notice this way shows where job loss concentrates structurally, manufacturing, retail, accommodation and food service, and information sectors typically dominate, each for different reasons: offshoring, store closures, seasonal swings, and tech restructuring. Worker totals and notice counts update as new 60-day WARN filings arrive from state labor agencies. A sector can rank high on total workers yet low on notice count when a handful of very large closures drive the number, compare both columns to read the pattern.
Industries with the largest recorded worker totals
Workers affected by WARN Act notices
- Other Services
Other Services
460,348 workers
- Manufacturing
Manufacturing
211,445 workers
- Transportation & Warehousing 158,362
Transportation & Warehousing
158,362 workers
- Retail Trade 135,000
Retail Trade
135,000 workers
- Information Technology 117,723
Information Technology
117,723 workers
- Accommodation & Food Services 90,670
Accommodation & Food Services
90,670 workers
- Health Care & Social Assistance 62,393
Health Care & Social Assistance
62,393 workers
- Arts, Entertainment & Recreation 50,057
Arts, Entertainment & Recreation
50,057 workers
- Finance & Insurance 50,030
Finance & Insurance
50,030 workers
- Professional & Technical Services 21,639
Professional & Technical Services
21,639 workers
What this shows Sector totals show where recorded job loss concentrates, while notice counts distinguish repeated smaller events from fewer large ones.
| # | Industry Sector (NAICS-2) | Workers Affected | Notices Filed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Other ServicesNAICS 81 | 460,348 | 4,194 |
| 2 | ManufacturingNAICS 31-33 | 211,445 | 994 |
| 3 | Transportation & WarehousingNAICS 48-49 | 158,362 | 424 |
| 4 | Retail TradeNAICS 44-45 | 135,000 | 549 |
| 5 | Information TechnologyNAICS 51 | 117,723 | 296 |
| 6 | Accommodation & Food ServicesNAICS 72 | 90,670 | 684 |
| 7 | Health Care & Social AssistanceNAICS 62 | 62,393 | 669 |
| 8 | Arts, Entertainment & RecreationNAICS 71 | 50,057 | 59 |
| 9 | Finance & InsuranceNAICS 52 | 50,030 | 234 |
| 10 | Professional & Technical ServicesNAICS 54 | 21,639 | 302 |
| 11 | Real EstateNAICS 53 | 15,073 | 47 |
| 12 | Educational ServicesNAICS 61 | 14,948 | 126 |
| 13 | Wholesale TradeNAICS 42 | 14,371 | 153 |
| 14 | Administrative & Support ServicesNAICS 56 | 9,913 | 129 |
| 15 | Mining & Oil and Gas ExtractionNAICS 21 | 9,787 | 30 |
| 16 | ConstructionNAICS 23 | 7,549 | 47 |
| 17 | Management of CompaniesNAICS 55 | 1,530 | 10 |
| 18 | Public AdministrationNAICS 92 | 1,524 | 47 |
| 19 | Agriculture, Forestry & FishingNAICS 11 | 1,188 | 12 |
Methodology
Each WARN Act notice in the PlainLayoffs database carries a normalized industry tag derived from the employer's primary NAICS-2 classification. Worker counts sum the "workers affected" field across every notice in the sector. The average workers per notice column reveals sector-level event size, manufacturing and transportation tend toward larger single events; healthcare and retail toward higher notice volume with smaller per-event headcounts.
Caveats
Federal WARN generally covers qualifying events at covered employers; for a 50–499-worker mass layoff, the affected workers generally must also equal at least one-third of the active workforce at that site. State mini-WARN laws can expand coverage in some jurisdictions but not all. Industry tags reflect the primary NAICS code of the filing entity, so a manufacturer running a retail outlet may register under manufacturing.
Source: WARN Act notices filed with state workforce agencies, aggregated by PlainLayoffs Worker counts and notice totals refresh automatically with each ETL run.
Every figure on PlainLayoffs is rendered directly from public WARN Act filings and state workforce agency records, no number is typed in by an editor. Industry totals are summed directly from WARN Act filings by NAICS sector. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 2026. A WARN filing is a legally required notice, not a judgment of a company's management or financial health; rankings here reflect filed notice volume only.