Area Development
More than 145,500 employees were laid off during the month of June, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports. The individual job losses resulted from 1,647 layoff actions taken by employers, with each involving at least 50 workers from a single employer.

Mass layoff events increased in June by 235 from the previous month, and associated initial claims climbed by 9,749. In June, there were 298 mass layoffs in the manufacturing sector alone, numbering 29,384 initial claims. Manufacturing accounted for 11 percent of all mass layoffs and 12 percent of initial claims. The transportation equipment and food sectors saw the biggest job losses within manufacturing.

The education system was particularly hard hit by layoffs last month. Nearly 32,000 elementary and secondary school employees lost their jobs, followed by more than 17,000 school and employee bus transportation workers, and 2,769 employees of colleges and universities.

California had the highest number of initial jobless claims last month, followed by Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Florida.