The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act was adopted to ensure that workers were notified of workplace closings and layoffs in advance. The U.S. Department of Labor has published a Worker’s Guide to answer questions about workers’ rights.
The increasing number of temporary and permanent layoffs and closings listed in the 2020 WARN report for North Carolina and the number of employees affected as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic are particularly sobering.
Job loss in North Carolina
The North Carolina map below is a graphic representation of where these layoffs and closings are occurring. Clicking on each point on the map opens a pop-up that identifies information about each business, including its name, address, and number of affected employees. We will continue to update this WARN map and summary charts on a weekly basis.
Note: Updated on January 8, 2021.
Summary by county
The charts below show (1) the number of layoff events per county, and (2) the number of workers laid off per county.
Layoff events by county
Workers laid off by county
While some listings directly attribute layoffs to COVID-19, we can assume that many, if not all of the listings with effective dates after March are influenced by the spread of the virus.
Finally, while these numbers may be overwhelming to consider, they are not all the layoffs and closures taking place. In Durham, for example, many small businesses have closed their doors and even larger ones have had to reduce staff dramatically. These are not all included in WARN records.
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