[PEN-L:34204] lobbying

["Ian Murray" <seamus2001@xxxxxxxxx>]

Posted on Tue, Jan. 28, 2003

Researchers want monthly government report on layoffs reinstated
By DIANE STAFFORD
The Kansas City Star

A research organization is petitioning the U.S. Department of Labor to reinstate a monthly
report on mass layoffs.

The Economic Policy Institute, which studies the effect of public policy on middle- and
lower-income groups, has asked Labor Secretary Elaine Chao to reconsider the department's
Dec. 31 discontinuation of the Mass Layoff Statistics report.

"The information the MLS provides is vital to policy-makers at all levels who have to
budget for and respond to mass dislocations, and many states have found it essential for
delivering services effectively to dislocated workers," the institute's board wrote in a
letter to Chao.

"It provides critical information on a regional basis and helps government and service
organizations understand labor market trends," the letter said. That information included
the reasons for plant closings.

The monthly report and a related quarterly Extended Mass Layoffs report were discontinued
when the Labor Department's Employment and Training Administration said it no longer could
afford to fund collection of the data.

The monthly mass layoff report tracked layoffs from establishments with at least 50 initial
unemployment insurance claims filed against them in a five-week period. The extended mass
layoff report provided demographic, geographic and industrial data about layoffs lasting at
least 31 days.

The Labor Department worked with state unemployment offices to collect the information. It
was the only national, standardized collection of data that tracked plant closings.

Institute President Lawrence Mishel and Chairman Gerald McEntee said the value of the mass
layoffs report was illustrated when economists attempted to track the economic effect of
the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

For example, their letter to Chao noted:

"The MLS found that in the 10 weeks following the attacks, 350 mass layoff events involving
103,781 workers were directly or indirectly linked to the attacks by the employers who
reported them. Nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of these reported separations occurred in
just six states, and 71 percent of the workers had been employed by scheduled air carriers,
hotels or motels."

Because the data for the reports originate in the states' unemployment offices, such
information continues to be available to any group with the resources to collect it.

The Labor Department said it cost $6.6 million a year to produce the reports.

The department's final mass layoff report, covering November 2002, said about 240,000
workers lost their jobs because of 2,150 mass layoff actions.

Several worker-oriented groups have joined the Economic Policy Institute in bemoaning the
loss of the mass layoff reports.

They said such information helps worker-relocation programs redirect laid-off workers to
other states or industries where jobs might be more plentiful. They also help states design
worker retraining programs in response to specific needs.