The downturn in America's economy showed its ugliest face in June 2001, when 2,081 mass layoffs put 250,359 people out of work, according to a U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics report.

Mass layoffs, as defined by the Labor Department include only layoff actions involving at least 50 persons from a single business and are based on filings by individuals for unemployment insurance benefits.

Manufacturing industries accounted for 36 percent of all June 2001 mass layoff events and 47 percent of all workers laid off. A year earlier, layoffs in manufacturing accounted for only 25 percent of layoff events and 31 percent of workers laid off.

Manufacturing industries with the highest number of workers laid off in June 2001 were:

• Transportation equipment (26,431, mostly in motor vehicles and car bodies and in parts and accessories), 
• Electronic and other electrical equipment (18,636, largely in printed circuit boards and in semiconductors), 
• Textile mill products (11,104, primarily in broadwoven fabric mills).

Services accounted for 25 percent of events and 19 percent of initial claims filed during the month. Layoffs in services were highly concentrated in business services (particularly in help supply services) and in social services (primarily in child day care services). Companies in the help supply services industry, however, are more likely than those in most other industries to lay off workers for fewer than 30 days.

Seven percent of all layoff events and 8 percent of initial claims during the month were in transportation and public utilities, largely in local and interurban passenger transit (school buses). Retail trade accounted for 8 percent of events and claims during the month, mostly in eating and drinking places and in general merchandise stores (department stores). An additional 9 percent of events and 7 percent of initial claims were in government, largely in educational services (elementary and secondary schools), as the school year ended.

California led all states in the number of workers laid off in mass layoff events (46,675), mostly in business services and in educational services, followed by Michigan (26,714), Pennsylvania (18,176), Illinois (13,605), South Carolina (12,225), and Texas (10,543). These six states accounted for 55 percent of all layoff events and 51 percent of all workers laid off.