Initial claims for unemployment insurance caused by mass layoff events — where 50 or more workers are laid off from a single workplace — fell by 8.0 percent in February from January, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, 119,463 initial claims for unemployment insurance related to mass layoffs were filed in February, down 10,457 from January. On a year-over-year basis, initial claims due to mass layoffs fell 9.2 percent in February.

Meanwhile, the number of mass layoff events fell in February by 141, to 1,293, a 9.8 percent decrease from January and year-over-year.

Temporary help services was the industry with the most initial claims due to mass layoff events in February with 6,381 claims, according to numbers that were not seasonally adjusted. The supermarket and other grocery stores industry was second, with 2,685 initial claims in February.

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