How many people are laid off in Washington state each month?
Updates published monthly
About 32,000 in April 2025. This includes all terminations of employment by an employer — called layoffs and discharges — such as permanent layoffs, temporary layoffs, and terminations because of mergers, downsizing, closings, or employee performance.
32K
people were laid off or discharged in Washington state in April 2025
149K
layoffs and discharges in Washington state in 2025 so far
Layoffs are a constant in the labor market — from 2001 to 2019, there was an average of 499,000 layoffs and discharges a year in Washington state. Increases in layoffs often reflect recessions or other economic disruption. For example, record-setting layoffs and discharges occurred in March and April of 2020 because of COVID-19. So far in 2025, layoffs and discharges total 149,000 in Washington state, which is equivalent to the same period in 2024.
In Washington state, layoffs were the same by April 2025 than by April 2024.
Cumulative monthly layoffs and discharges in Washington state, seasonally adjusted
Another way to consider this data is to look at the layoff and discharge rate. This puts layoffs and discharges in the context of the total number of people working by showing layoffs and discharges as a percent of employed people who were laid off during the given time period. This rate allows for better comparisons across time, industries, and places by adjusting for differences in the size of the working population.
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Washington state’s layoff rate decreased between March and April 2025.
Seasonally adjusted US and Washington state monthly layoff and discharge rates, Dec. 2000–April 2025
In April 2025, 0.9% of people employed in Washington state were laid off or discharged, a lower rate than March. Compared to the national numbers, the April 2025 rate in Washington state was lower, meaning a lower share of the Washington state working population was laid off or dismissed in April 2025 compared to the US overall.
Average layoff and discharge rates are also useful to consider because they smooth out short-term fluctuations and clarify long-term trends.
In April 2025, Washington state’s 12-month average layoff rate was the same as the US average.
12-month rolling average layoff and discharge rates in the US and Washington state, Nov. 2001–April 2025
During the first 20 years of data, the 12-month average layoff and discharge rate in the US peaked at the end of the Great Recession in June 2009 at 1.8% and during the COVID-19 pandemic in May 2020 at 2.4%. Washington state’s 12-month average layoff rate was 0.4 percentage points higher than the US rate in June 2009 and the same in May 2020.
As of April 2025, Washington state's 12-month average layoff rate was the same as the US overall. At 1.1%, Washington state's average layoff and discharge rate increased 0.1 percentage points compared to one year prior (May 2023–April 2024 average). The rate increased 0.1 percentage points compared to two years prior (May 2022–April 2023 average).
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Methodology
USAFacts standardizes data, in areas such as time and demographics, to make it easier to understand and compare.
The analysis was generated with the help of AI and reviewed by USAFacts for accuracy.
